President Obama has appointed the first gender identity advocate to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Barbara Satin, a male who identifies as female, was announced on May 12 along with other appointees to several White House advisory boards. According to the White House’s biographical background, Satin is the Assistant Faith Work Director for the National LGBTQ Task Force and is on the Executive Council of the United Church of Christ. The first person in the history of the Council to openly identify as the opposite sex, Satin has also been a board member with OutFront Minnesota and PFund Foundation, and is Chair of the group GLBT Generations.

The president’s appointment means that Satin will be involved in policy recommendations to the Obama administration on issues and services related to faith-based groups.

“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,” Satin said in a statement after the appointment was announced.

According to a biography on the website for The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Religious Archives Network, Satin was raised Roman Catholic and attended Catholic school. He briefly attended seminary as a teenager, then graduated with a degree in sociology from a Catholic college.

He then entered the Air Force as “a macho way of distracting any attention from her gender dilemma,” but was discharged a year later due to a kidney infection. He subsequently married after living in St. Paul, had three children with his wife, and began a career in public relations while becoming “a prominent leader in the Roman Catholic Diocese…”

The bio notes that Satin’s attempts at gender change were supported by his children, and that he believes God intended for his gender confusion to “be a blessing in her life.”

Satin eventually left his family’s home “to live full-time as Barbara,” but “since has returned,” according to the bio. Satin left the Catholic Church at the same time that he left the family home.

Other Notable Appointments Made

Satin was one of three appointments announced on May 12 to the 15-member, mostly Christian, faith advisory council. Like Satin, the other two represent minority religions. Manji Singh, a technology consultant and co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, is Sikh, a religion with about 700,000 American adherents.

Naseem Kourosh, an attorney and the Human Rights Officer at the U.S. Bahá’í Office of Public Affairs, is Baha’i and a religious freedom advocate. It is the second-largest religion in South Carolina but has an unknown total membership that likely does not exceed 10 million people worldwide.

Satin’s denomination has 1.1 million members. She also represents people with gender identity disorder, which is claimed by approximately 0.1 to 0.3 percent of the U.S. population, though that estimate is considered incomplete by the person who conducted one of the most-cited surveys on the U.S. transgendered population.

Another notable appointee is Reverend Thomas Reese, who was named to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. According to the White House brief, Reese is employed by the heretical National Catholic Reporter, a self-described Catholic publication that supports redefining marriage. Reese was ordained as a Jesuit in 1974, and has backed the reception of Communion by pro-abortion Catholic politicians.

Reese, who was first appointed to the faith council in 2014, encouraged the U.S. Catholic bishops to not fight the redefinition of marriage after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year struck down pro-marriage laws in all states. According to Reese, the bishops’ “fanatical opposition to the legalization of gay marriage has made young people look on the church as a bigoted institution with which they do not want to be associated.”

In his announcement, President Obama stated that “These fine public servants bring a depth of experience and tremendous dedication to their important roles.  I look forward to working with them.”