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Amanda Simpson Receives Presidential Appointment to the Department of Commerce

Cara

amanda simpsonI’m a little late on this, but for those who haven’t yet heard, I thought I’d post the good news that a woman named Amanda Simpson has been appointed by the Obama Administration to the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (Note: the comments at the HuffPo article are a cesspool of offensiveness):

Defense industry veteran Amanda Simpson of Tuscon, Arizona, who really is a rocket scientist, was just appointed by President Obama to the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security as a senior technical advisor. Her job will include managing exports of dual use technology as well as conducting press and media liaison work for the agency.

Simpson is highly qualified for the position. She has worked in the aerospace and defense industry for 30 years, most recently serving as Deputy Director in Advanced Technology Development at Raytheon Missile Systems. She holds degrees in physics, engineering and business administration, and is a certified flight instructor and test pilot with 20 years of experience.

What has been making Simpson’s appointment newsworthy, though, is the fact that she is a transgender woman. And while very far from being the only trans government worker, it seems that she is the first openly trans person woman to receive a presidential appointment (ETA: The first trans person to receive a presidential appointment was Dylan Orr, who is a trans man. That makes Simpson not the first trans person in general, but still the first trans woman). Further, she’s actually an activist within the trans community who, among other things, served on the Board of Directors at the National Center For Transgender Equality (NCTE). NCTE had this to say on their blog:

“What is noteworthy about this appointment is not that a transgender person is serving this administration—many transgender people work for the federal government—the real story is that Amanda Simpson was selected based on her exemplary credentials and not because she is transgender,” commented Mara Keisling, Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “Countless transgender people are overlooked every day for jobs they can do very well. When an employer does not discriminate based on gender identity, they have access to more highly qualified people. That’s what happened here.”

In a different article (Note: the article in general is not recommended, and contains some transphobic elements), Simpson herself said the following:

“I think to some extent it shouldn’t mean much at all, but on the other hand it does,” Simpson said during a telephone interview Monday from Washington, D.C. Simpson moved recently after living in Tucson for 15 years.

“So many employers and people in this country are not willing to look past that, and that’s why this is important.”

…

Simpson said that while advancements have been made toward equality, she hopes to see more people hired and promoted strictly based on their ability to do the job.

“So many people get caught up in the noise of, ‘Gee, you don’t look like me and you don’t have the same background or experience as me,’ ” she said. “They don’t realize that’s what makes this country great.”

A huge congratulations to her! She’s certainly qualified for the position, and I imagine will do it well.

21 thoughts on Amanda Simpson Receives Presidential Appointment to the Department of Commerce

  4. Hurray!! (I liked the bit about how she “really is a rocket scientist”. Trans women geeks get even less representation than cis women geeks.)

  5. Hurrah for Ms.Amanda Simpson! We’re just a step closer to a perfect world where everyone gets what they deserve.

    And sorry for going offtrack, but I don’t see why the other article is transphobic. I checked whether there were comments, as they can open up closed minds, but there weren’t any. Can anyone enlighten me?

  6. Femnist, I know I thought the article went grossly into details about her personal life and history. She had her “forehead ground down”? There’s gotta be a better way to describe whatever procedure she had, and do we really need to know that anyways?

  7. I didn’t read the article, but that sounds like a rather, well, graphic way of describing one of the procedures commonly referred to as facial feminization surgery. I’ll be the first to admit that around other trans people I tend to be rather blunt and graphic about such things, but the media doing it tends to be…somewhat transphobic.

    Good for Amanda, but how about passing an inclusive ENDA to give a wee bit of hope for trans women who aren’t industry bigwigs with lots of connections and a thick resume?

  8. Living proof that trans folks mirror the full range of the rest of the population.

    She is literally a rocket scientist. Let’s not forget who the “rocket scientists” were. They were Nazi war criminals whose crimes were overlooked because of their value in the cold war. By comparison, being trans doesn’t seem like much to see beyond.

    How sad is it that I’m more glad about the fact that a trans woman was appointed than I am angry that (yet another) missile scientist gets to make decisions about how our government does things?

  9. “Trans women geeks get even less representation than cis women geeks.”

    Which is interesting, as the two trans women I’ve known best are serious, hardcore geeks.

    I can’t stand reading comment sections on mainstream news and commentary sites for articles about trans issues. The ignorance and hatred burns.

  10. After reading some of the horrifying things written about Amanda Simpson and her appointment, I’m heartened to find a positive atmosphere here.

    The hostility visited upon transsexuals is a mirror which reflects an evil combination of sexism and homophobia all at once – and some of the comments I’ve read terrify me – both as a woman and as a transsexual.

    In short, I think feminists and transsexuals have much to share in our mutual struggles for equality and validity in a world that so often chooses to devalue our respective contributions.

  11. Which is interesting, as the two trans women I’ve known best are serious, hardcore geeks.

    I know very few cis hardcore geeks, and imagine them to not be in the majority. I wonder if the prevalence of hardcore geek trans women has anything to do with being socialized male for a significant portion of one’s life? Obviously this only applies to trans women who didn’t transition until later in life. This isn’t to suggest that women who are trans are not “real” women, but rather to wonder if socialization may have something to do with the fact that more trans women have an inclination toward the “geeky” side than cis women.

  13. Oh, I’ve even fished contributors out of the mod queue before, nobody knows exactly what makes it tick! As you can see, your second comment went through at once and I fished your first out within a few minutes.

  14. @Femnist Yes, basically what Marle said.

    It’s essentially standard in any mainstream media article about a trans woman to make a point of mentioning our assigned-at-birth names, to mention whatever medical treatments we’ve had and random irrelevant bits about clothing and wigs (bonus points if there’s a picture putting make-up on, sadly they missed that).

    All of these are fairly objectifying, no? I mean, is surgery and reference to your genitals something particularly relevant to your employment?

    More perniciously, this focus on the accoutrements of trans women’s femininity encourages the general perception of trans women as illusory, manufactured, fake, artificial–which segues rapidly into deceptive and deluded..

  15. Characterizing Ms. Simpson as a geek isn’t especially respectful of her either. She is a quite brilliant, well-rounded woman who has excellent social, management and speaking skills and has been involved both with activism and politics for many years. Just because she has this skill set, please lets not make silly assumptions about her character much less the character of transwomen in general.

    Yes, news stories about transwomen involving their assigned birth names, genital status, medical procedures and personal details of their transitions, much less blind speculation on their “male socialization” are all crude attempts to strip them of their womenhood and would classify as a form of trans repression.

  16. Marlene: “She is literally a rocket scientist. Let’s not forget who the “rocket scientists” were. They were Nazi war criminals whose crimes were overlooked because of their value in the cold war. By comparison, being trans doesn’t seem like much to see beyond.

    How sad is it that I’m more glad about the fact that a trans woman was appointed than I am angry that (yet another) missile scientist gets to make decisions about how our government does things?”

    I don’t mean to derail the thread, but
    1. The overlooking of the backgrounds of German rocket scientists was Truman’s deal, not other scientists’. Many American rocket scientists, EVEN during WWII and the Cold War, were very politically progressive in terms of foreign policy. Scientific background does and should not make someone morally and politically suspect.
    2. A lot of the Germans who were recruited to work for the US govt. post-WWII weren’t just working on missiles. They also contributed greatly to the development of satellite technology and the Saturn V rocket, which was essential for the moon landing and other awesome nonlethal stuff.
    3. Since Amanda Simpson is not and has presumably never been a Nazi war criminal, can we please focus on her achievement as a tech expert, a scientist, and a trans woman and not waste our time uselessly denigrating an entire valuable profession?

    Thanks.

  17. Also, ginasf and queen emily are right on.

    The director of NCTE basically said it herself: the important thing here is that positions like this suffer when employers concentrate on background rather than skills and qualifications, so WHY THE HELL is the mainstream media/general populace concentrating on her personal life so hard?

  18. Characterizing Ms. Simpson as a geek isn’t especially respectful of her either.

    Oh please. Geekdom is the highest honor the internets can bestow on someone! 😀 Having other geeks call you a geek means you’re *in* and it’s always nice for me (as a female geek) to hear women getting their public geek cred on. Go scientists!

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