Here’s a delightful profile of the excellent Ben Panico, a Congressional staffer soon to work with Colorado’s Rep. Jared Polis.
“I never imagined I’d be walking through these halls,” he told a Fusion reporter. “It’s so exciting and it’s really beautiful. It’s kind of like walking through a museum every day.”
Ben doesn’t want to talk to reporters about his transition — which is fine, since it’s really his business, not yours — but he’s happy to show the work that he does for the LGBT equality caucus. “I’m just going to my job like any other person,” he says.
Soon Panico will be working in the office of Jared Polis, himself one of the few openly gay members of Congress. Unfortunately, Polis recently stunned the nation by combining a polo shirt — a polo shirt! — and a bow tie and blazer. It’s just a complete outrage. How does something like this happen?
Anyway, back to Ben. For now, his duties include website updates and letter-writing, but we see greatness in his future.
And stick with the video for a few nice words near the end from our heroine, Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality. She remembers just a few years ago, having to explain to members of Congress what the word “trans” means.
Today, she says, “we’re still a bit of a novelty on the hill,” but now politicians know who they are.
H/t HuffPo
middleagespread
Congrats on the job and good luck!!
tdx3fan
What a beautiful boy. He looks so incredibly young. It is awesome that he got this job. Most staffers normally get these positions because they worked their ass off campaigning for the candidate. Running a political campaign is a VERY hard job that requires MANY hours of work… sometimes, they pretty much work around the clock for many weeks running up to the election.
Cam
Always nice to have people representing different perspectives getting work up on the Hill.
The Hill pays so little that pretty much only the children of wealthy families or people willing to work as bartenders or waitresses on weekends can afford to hold the entry level jobs there. Unfortunately the entry level jobs are how you get the higher level jobs, so Capital Hill is literally staffed by the children of wealthy donors in large part.
So congratulations to this young man, do well!