White House appoints lesbian as OPM counsel
As John Berry awaits confirmation as head of the Office of Personal Management, the White House has appointed attorney Elaine Kaplan as the office’s general counsel. If both are confirmed, this will raise the total to two LGBT appointees in the Office of Personal Management, and 22 total.
Kaplan has worked as senior deputy general counsel for the National Treasury Employees Union in Washington since 2004. She began working as an attorney for the NTEU in 1984 and became known as an expert in federal workforce issues. The NTEU represents federal workers at the Department of the Treasury as well as workers in other federal agencies.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton named Kaplan as head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which, among other things, is charged with protecting federal workers from employment discrimination, including discrimination based on sexual orientation. She returned to the NETU in 2004 after her term as head of the Office of Special Counsel ended.
Kaplan joined federal workers and gay rights groups in raising concerns over the policies of her successor at the Office of Special Counsel, Bush administration appointee Scott Bloch, who argued that existing civil service laws did not protect gay federal workers from discrimination. In statements to the media, Kaplan challenged Bloch’s interpretation of civil service laws, saying the laws and regulations treat anti-gay job discrimination as a prohibited personnel practice in the federal workforce.
