Obama continues to appoint a record number of gay officials
President Barack Obama has appointed more openly gay officials than any other president in history. He’s made an estimated 150 appointments thus far – from agency heads and commission members to policy officials and senior staffers. This surpasses the previous high of about 140 reached during two full terms under President Bill Clinton.
White House spokesman Shin Inouye confirmed the record number, saying Obama has hired more gay officials than the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations combined. He said Obama “is proud that his appointments reflect the diversity of the American public.”
“He is committed to appointing highly qualified individuals for each post,” Inouye said. “We have made a record number of openly LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender) appointments and we are confident that this number will only continue to grow.”
Denis Dison – spokesman for the Presidential Appointments Project of the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute – lists 124 of the appointees on its website. The remainder are not listed because they are lower-level officials not formally announced by the White House.
