President Obama had appointed a transgender individual to serve on the Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, according to Breitbart.
Barbara Satin, a Catholic transgender woman, stated, “I am both honored and humbled to be selected to serve on the President’s advisory council,” Satin said. “Given the current political climate, I believe it’s important that a voice of faith representing the transgender and gender non-conforming community—as well as a person of my years, nearly 82—be present and heard in these vital conversations.”
The White House’s official announcement of Satin’s appointment states:
Barbara Satin is the Assistant Faith Work Director for the National LGBTQ Task Force. She is an active member of the United Church of Christ and served on the denomination’s Executive Council as its first openly transgender member. Ms. Satin recently worked on the development of Spirit on Lake, a LGBTQ senior housing project in Minneapolis. She served on the Board of Directors for OutFront Minnesota from 2001 to 2008 and has served as Chair of GLBT Generations since 1999. She has also served on the Board of Directors of PFund Foundation, a regional LGBTQ community foundation advancing social justice in Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, since 2013.
In an interview with LGBT Religious Archives Network, Satin said that she was raised “as a boy” in a Catholic family. She struggled with her gender identity throughout her younger years. She attended a Catholic college and also served in the U.S. Air Force. While still identifying as a male, Satin married and had three children.
In later years, Satin began to more fully explore her transgender identity. She said she chose the name “Barbara Satin” because “Barbara was the name of the first girl that I felt attracted to, and Satin is the fabric of my life.”
Although identifying as a woman, Satin has never undergone medical or surgical treatment to become more like a woman.
Publication date: May 23, 2016
