Amanda's albatross
Transmissions
Published 01/14/2010
by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
http://www.ebar.com/columns/column.php?sec=transmissionsPresident Barack Obama appointed Amanda Simpson, a former test pilot, for a senior technical adviser post in the Commerce Department. Simpson has a 30-year history working in the defense and aerospace industries, largely with Raytheon Missile Systems. Further, she was the Democratic nominee to the Arizona state House of Representatives in 2004, albeit losing in the general election. That same year, the YWCA named her as one of its "Women on the Move." She is highly qualified, well connected, and just the sort of person you might expect to be appointed to such a post.
Yet all of this information was hardly noticed when Simpson's nod became news. Her history and skills were tossed by the wayside, tacked on at the end of even the most positive news stories. Every honor Simpson has earned, every skill she has acquired, and all the talent she may have is trumped by one fact about her life: she is transgender.
