President Obama picks African-American lesbian mother for key Labor position

From Americablog:

A great pick for the Labor Department today -- a very strong advocate working men and women:

Labor unions scored a victory today when the President Barack Obama named a top labor advocate to serve in a key position in the Labor Department.

Mary Beth Maxwell will join the administration as senior adviser after serving for years as the executive director of the labor coalition American Rights at Work. In the administration, Maxwell will work with the White House Task Force on Middle Class and Working Families, a group that is working to improve the lives and jobs of workers.

Mary Beth Maxwell is also openly gay. She was under consideration for Secretary of Labor earlier this year as we reported in December. Here's a profile from the WSJ:

For the rainbow cabinet of the nation’s first African American president, Mary Beth Maxwell is the perfect labor secretary you’ve probably never heard of: a gay woman, community organizer and labor leader with an adopted African American son. And this founding executive director of American Rights at Work is about to get the full-court press.
She's the perfect adviser to the labor secretary now, too.

Now some folks probably feel that I shouldn't make a big deal about Maxwell in this manner (i.e. focusing on the her sexual orientation), but I don't care for two reasons:

1. Lgbts of color have very very few public role models to look up to.

2. BET has shown the anti-gay movie Soul Plane continuously over the past year and being that I haven't cut anyone because of it, I'm entitled to some joy.

So. . . .

Eat that, Hary Jackson, Ken Hutcherson, Peter LaBarbera and the rest (you know you are) who exploit the fear between the black and gay communities!!!!