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West Wingers: Stories from the Dream Chasers, Change Makers, and Hope Creators Inside the Obama White House - Softcover

 
9780143133292: West Wingers: Stories from the Dream Chasers, Change Makers, and Hope Creators Inside the Obama White House
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0143133292 ISBN 13: 9780143133292
Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group, 2018

Inhaltsangabe

The Obama White House staff invites us behind-the-scenes of history for a deeply personal and moving look at the presidency and how the president’s staff can change the nation

“West Wingers is exceptional. . . . We have so much to learn from these stories.” —President Biden

When we elect a president, we elect with them an entire team that will join them in the West Wing to help run the country. Each of these staffers has a story to tell, and in West Wingers, Barack Obama’s White House staff reveals how these extraordinary citizens shape the presidency and the nation.

In these moving and revealing personal stories, eighteen Obama staffers bring us deep inside the presidency, offering intimate accounts of how they made it to the White House, what they witnessed, and what they accomplished there.  We hear from a married gay staffer pushing the president towards marriage equality; a senior aide working to implement the Affordable Care Act while battling Stage IV cancer; a hijab-wearing Muslim adviser accompanying the President to a mosque. In each one we see the human face of government, staffers devoting themselves to the issues that have defined their lives. From the triumphs of Obamacare and marriage equality to the tragedy of the Charleston shooting, this book tells the history of the Obama presidency through the men and women who worked tirelessly to support his vision for America. More than just a history though, West Wingers is an inspiring call to arms for public service, a testament to the possibility of real social change, and a powerful demonstration of what true diversity, inclusivity, and progress can look like in America.

“These deeply moving stories offer more than a fascinating view into the window of history: they show us how hope becomes real, sustainable change.” —Valerie Jarrett, former senior advisor to President Obama

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Gautam Raghavan served as Barack Obama's liaison to the LGBT community as well as the Asian American and Pacific Islander community from 2011-2014. Prior to this, he worked for the Department of Defense, the 2008 Obama Campaign, and the Democratic National Committee. Raghavan was born in India, raised in Seattle, and graduated from Stanford. He currently lives in Washington, D.C. with his husband Andy and their new daughter, Maya.

Contributors to West Wingers: Gautam Raghavan, Michael Strautmanis, Leah Katz-Hernandez, Brad Jenkins, Heather Foster, Cecilia Muñoz, Hope Hall, Michael J. Robertson, Raina Thiele, Lynn Rosenthal, Bill Yosses, Darienne Page, Deesha Dyer, Ned Price, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Rumana Ahmed, Stephanie Valencia, and Aneesh Raman.

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When we elect a president, we elect with them an entire team that will join them in the West Wing to help run the country. Each of these staffers has a story to tell, and in West Wingers, Barack Obama's White House staff reveals how these extraordinary citizens shape the presidency and the nation. In these moving and revealing personal stories, eighteen Obama staffers bring us deep inside the presidency, offering intimate accounts of how they made it to the White House, what they witnessed, and what they accomplished there. In each one we see the human face of government, staffers devoting themselves to the issues that have defined their lives. We hear from a married gay staffer pushing the president towards marriage equality; a senior aide working to implement the Affordable Care Act while battling Stage IV cancer; a hijab-wearing Muslim adviser accompanying the President to a mosque. From the triumphs of Obamacare and marriage equality to the tragedy of the Charleston shooting, this book tells the history of the Obama presidency through the men and women who worked tirelessly to support his vision for America. More than just a history though, West Wingers is an inspiring call to arms for public service, a manifesto for the power of committed public servants to make real change, and a powerful testament to what true diversity, inclusivity, and progress can look like in America.

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Evolution

Gautam Raghavan

I never thought that one of my career highlights would involve weeping uncontrollably on the second floor of the West Wing, but we don't always get to pick how these moments play out.

It was a moment decades in the making, a turning point not just in the arc of our nation's history, but in my own journey as a married gay man who found himself working for the President of the United States.


I came out in the summer of 2003. Twice.

As is true for many gay folks deciding whether to come out and when, I arrived at a point where loneliness overcame all my hesitations and reservations. By the end of my junior year at Stanford University, I knew that I had only two options: alone and miserable in the closet, or fulfilled and happy outside of it.

I chose happiness. I was going to spend the summer interning in Washington, DC, and as a newly out and proud gay man, the possibilities were endless and exciting: Would I go to a gay bar? March in a Pride parade? Maybe even meet someone?

But when I got to Washington, all my hope and optimism was tempered by powerful forces seeking to limit possibility and opportunity in my life.

As it happens, I came out in the middle of a raging national debate over gay marriage. We were in the early days of the 2004 presidential campaign, and George Bush and Karl Rove were determined to use LGBTQ rights—my rights—to divide the country and mobilize their base. At the time, the LGBTQ community had few political allies. Of the entire field of Democratic candidates, only former Vermont governor Howard Dean had adopted anything close to a pro-equality position, largely consisting of his support for civil unions.

This timing made my decision to come out feel as political as it was personal. It not only meant becoming part of a community that was under siege, but also owning an identity that I would need to fight for. In that climate, coming out as gay but staying in the political closet just wasn't an option.

I returned to Stanford for my senior year determined to get involved. I volunteered on Howard Dean's presidential campaign and started reading the political blogs. A few months later, hundreds of gay and lesbian couples flocked to San Francisco's city hall to get married by newly elected mayor Gavin Newsom and other city officials eager to thumb their noses at the Bush administration. As I looked at photographs and watched videos of these brave men and women, some having waited decades for such a moment, I felt inspired—and resolved—to become a part of my community's fight for equality.


After graduation, I went back home to the Seattle suburbs for the summer to work for a congressional candidate running in the 2004 election. One warm July evening, I was knocking on doors for the campaign when, through a window, on somebody's television screen, I saw Barack Obama for the first time.

Even from my limited vantage point from the sidewalk outside, something about his poise or expression immediately grabbed my attention. Later that night, I watched his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in full. I didn't know that night that his words would inspire an entire generation of activists, organizers, and public servants. For me, a newly out gay man just beginning to develop his political consciousness, there was nothing more moving than his description of the "improbable love" of his parents, and the line, "We coach little league in the blue states and, yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states."

I was hooked. I told my parents—but only half seriously—that one day I would work for Barack Obama. I didn't dare dream for a moment I'd ever have that opportunity. I did, however, hope that I would have the chance to work for someone like him—someone who sees America and loves America the way I do.

So I moved to Washington, DC, to get in the fight. What I didn't count on was falling in love.


In February 2005, just six months later, I met Andy. We were both graduate students: young, eager, mostly idealistic. We met almost by accident on Friendster, one of the many social network predecessors to Facebook that was (for a hot moment) all the rage. After exchanging messages for over a week, we finally met for a drink—and it was clear there was something there.

On our second date, Andy's dad came along. He was in town to see Andy in a play and invited me to join them for dinner. I didn't want to pass up the opportunity to see him again, so despite the apparent awkwardness of meeting one of his parents so soon, I went for it. Over enchiladas and beer, Andy's dad asked about my childhood, my parents, and my career. The conversation flowed freely and easily. The most remarkable part of the night was how unremarkable it all seemed.

Looking back, I don't think either of us thought for a moment we'd end up marrying each other. I don't think either of us even thought at the time that marriage would ever be an option. I still remember the first words out of my mom's mouth when I came out to her just a year earlier: "You still want to have kids, right?" I didn't know how to answer that question. A future in which a gay couple could get married, raise a family, and live happily ever after seemed out of reach—not just for me, but for countless gay and lesbian people across the country.

Of course, this wasn't for lack of trying. As early as the 1970s, in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision striking down interracial marriage bans in Loving v. Virginia, same-sex couples began fighting for the right to marry. Many of these plaintiffs were laughed out of court, but most were ignored altogether. Some, like Tony Sullivan and Richard Adams, got the worst of it. When they petitioned for a spousal visa following a private marriage celebration in 1975, the U.S. Department of Justice informed them on official letterhead: "You have failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots."

Marriage equality, or "gay marriage" in the shorthand of media punditry, seemed a lost cause throughout the 1990s. It wasn't until 2004 that Massachusetts became the first marriage equality state in the nation, joined a few years later by Connecticut in 2008 thanks to the leadership of civil rights lawyers like Mary Bonauto eager to build momentum in the courts.

In this context, it's no wonder that unlike so many of our straight peers who had been in long-term relationships, Andy and I never talked seriously about getting married. What was the point of making an impossible plan?

Nonetheless, by the time the 2008 presidential campaign rolled around, our relationship had progressed—and despite the odds stacked against us, the possibility of marriage had started to take root in my mind. Still, it felt like a silly proposition: sure, we could trek up to Andy's home state of Connecticut and have a wedding ceremony there, but what was the point if our marriage license was worthless at home in the District of Columbia?

That June, just weeks after moving in with Andy, I was deployed from the Democratic National Committee, where I had been working as a political fundraiser, to Chicago to work out of Obama campaign headquarters. The next few months were a whirlwind of campaign events marked by long hours and a handful of quick weekend trips to see one another. But we both felt it was worth it, and on election night, we each celebrated Barack Obama's victory—me just steps away from the President-elect in Grant Park, and he with a raucous crowd outside the White House. When Barack Obama took the stage to declare victory, it felt like the political status quo had been momentarily upended. It felt as though anything might be possible in America.

But then the...

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Verlag
Penguin Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
2018
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0143133292
ISBN 13 
9780143133292
Einband
Taschenbuch
Auflage
1
Anzahl der Seiten
337
Herausgeber
Raghavan Gautam
Kontakt zum Hersteller
SC
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/

CL MODESTO LAFUENTE 41
Madrid
Madrid
Spanien