Obama Appoints Transgender Woman to Commerce

President Obama appointed a transgender woman, Amanda Simpson, to be a Technical Advisor at the Commerce Department.

Simpson has worked in the aerospace and defense industry for 30 years, and most recently served as Deputy Director in Advanced Technology Development at Raytheon Missile Systems in Tuscon, Arizona. At Raytheon, she made the transition from male to female and helped convince the company to include gender identity and expression to its equal opportunity employment policy. CNN

Simpson's bio:

Simpson brings considerable professional credentials to her new job. For thirty years, she has worked in the aerospace and defense industry, most recently serving as Deputy Director in Advanced Technology Development at Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Arizona. She holds degrees in physics, engineering and business administration along with an extensive flight background. She is a certified flight instructor and test pilot with 20 years of experience.

She has also been very active in political and community groups. She has served on the Board of Directors of two national organizations: Out & Equal and NCTE. In Arizona, she has been on the board of Wingspan, the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance, the Southern Arizona ACLU and the Arizona Human Rights Fund (now Equality Arizona).

In 2004, the YWCA recognized her as one of their “Women on the Move,” and in the same year, she won the Democratic nomination to the Arizona House of Representatives. In 2005, she was given the Arizona Human Rights Foundation Individual Award. Intraa