Our Bureau
WASHINGTON: Another Obama administration official finds himself in the Biden administration, and this time he’s gay and he’s Indian American. Gautam Raghavan, a White House LGBTQ+ liaison in President Barack Obama’s administration, will now be deputy director of the Office of Presidential Personnel by President-elect Joe Biden.
Raghavan is a member of Biden’s transition team. Like Vedant Patel, who was appointed assistant press secretary to the White House late last week, Raghavan has also worked with former Pramila Jayapal—as chief of staff. He has also been an adviser to the Biden Foundation and as vice president of Policy for the Gill Foundation, a foundation that works for the cause of the LGBTQ+ community.
The LGBTQ Victory Institute, which provides training in leadership development in politics to LGBTQ+ people, released a statement that said Raghavan’s position is “key to identifying, recruiting and vetting the more than 4,000 political appointments across the federal government … Gautam also understands our community is not monolithic and that LGBTQ people of all races, sexual orientations and gender identities must be part of the new administration.” Raghavan is a key member of the Victory Institute.
Raghavan is a first-generation Indian immigrant and graduated from Stanford University. He lives in Seattle. In his Twitter profile, Raghavan calls himself “Appa [Tamil for father], husband, gay, immigrant, proud naturalized citizen.” In a Tweet, Raghavan hailed Biden’s commitment to diversity: “It’s time again for an administration that looks like America — and will produce results that are good for ALL Americans.”
