Less than halfway through his first term, President Barack Obama has appointed more openly gay officials than any other president in history.
Gay activists say the estimate of more than 150 appointments so far – from agency heads and commission members to policy officials and senior staffers – surpasses the previous high of about 140 reached during two full terms under President Bill Clinton.
"From everything we hear from inside the administration, they wanted this to be part of their efforts at diversity," said Denis Dison, spokesman for the Presidential Appointments Project of the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute.
The pace of appointments has helped to ease broader disappointment among gay rights groups that Obama has not acted more quickly on other fronts, such as ending the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bans gays from serving openly in the military.
In a sign of how times have changed, few of the appointees – about two dozen required Senate confirmation – have stirred much controversy. It's a far cry from the 1993 furor surrounding Clinton's nomination of then-San Francisco Supervisor Roberta Achtenberg as assistant secretary for Housing and Urban Development.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Huffington Post: Obama's Gay Appointees Smash Record
Really?? So under the radar, I hadn't noticed. (Nor apparently, has the Gay Community):
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Wow. Under the radar indeed.
And yet, out come the torches and pitchforks and accusations just because he cannot get DADT overturned in two seconds or less. And when the Republicans kill the bill to repeal DADT in the Senate, Obama gets blamed.
To think that this man and this administration have accomplished so much...and yet, clueless people on both the right and the left continue to yell, "But he hasn't done anything!!"
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