The League of Iowa Human & Civil Rights Agencies

When Amanda Simpson starts her new job this week, she will make history as the first openly transgender presidential appointee to the federal government. Simpson, 49, will serve as a senior technical adviser for the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, where she will monitor the exports of U.S. weapons technology. In a related development this week, the Obama administration has adjusted the language on the federal jobs web site to explicitly ban employment discrimination based on gender identity. After the introduction of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009 (ENDA), which did not include transgender people, this is a significant event in the struggle for civil rights in the LGBT community.

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