Transgender veteran Shawn Skelly was added to President-elect Joe Biden’s presidential transition team at the Department of Defense.
“Joe Biden has made clear that he wants the next administration to be reflective of the diversity of America,” Elliot Imse, the Victory Institute’s director of communications, told NBC News. “And we know that Biden believes LGBTQ people are an important part of that diverse America. So, we expect the next administration to appoint more LGBTQ people to political positions than ever before, and we hope that it is also the most diverse group of LGBTQ appointees in American history.”
Skelly served in active duty for 20 years in the U.S. Navy as a flight officer and was also the first transgender veteran appointed by a president in 2013. Skelly served in various positions under the Obama administration, including as a special assistant to the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics at the Department of Defense and as the director of the Office of the Executive Secretariat at the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Skelly is also vice president of Out in National Security, which describes itself as a “group of national security professionals” that “speaks fearlessly in defense of LGBTQIA+ rights, connects like-minded national security practitioners, advances American interests, and improves American security.”
