Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney on Tuesday appointed the first-ever transgender woman of color to run his Office of LGBT Affairs, KYW-AM reported.
What are the details?
Celena Morrison — slated to start as executive director in March — will "drive the city's LGBT policy and community engagement and educate and advise the mayor's office and the city about the needs of LGBT individuals at work, in the community and beyond," the station said.
Celena Morrison says her identity and background will help her deal with issues at the intersection of race and gen… https://t.co/ZPqNWzJWJm— KYW Newsradio (@KYW Newsradio) 1580329980.0
"While Philadelphia is known as a progressive, LGBTQ-friendly city, we still have work to do," Kenney said in a statement. "I look forward to working with Celena to build a more inclusive city for our residents."
Morrison added to the station that being transgender and black will be an asset when it comes to the job's demands of dealing with issues of race and gender.
"Trans folks are not being accepted," Morrison told KYW. "They are not accepted within the LGBT community. They are also not accepted within the black community. That double marginalization calls for a different type of support."
The North Carolina native has been a "progressive LGBT advocate in Philadelphia for a decade," the station reported, adding that Morrison was director of programs at William Way LGBT Community Center for two years and began serving on the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations in 2018.
Here's a brief clip of Morrison from 2017:
What else has Kenney said and done?
- Last summer, Kenney used the shooting of six police officers to blast the National Rifle Association and push for gun control.
- Just before Christmas in 2018, Kenney called on store owners to remove "realistic" toy guns from shelves.
- The mayor said in July 2018 that Philadelphia no longer would grant ICE access to its real-time arrest database, saying the agency abused it to target illegal immigrants who aren't committing any other crimes.
- He also noted that he stands for the national anthem because he's a "privileged white male" and called President Donald Trump a "fragile egomaniac obsessed with crowd size" over the president's decision to rescind the Philadelphia Eagles' invitation to visit the White House because the team decided to send only a handful of players after its 2018 Super Bowl win .
- After police confirmed that a suspect who attempted to "execute" a Philadelphia police officer in 2016 claimed to have done so in the name of Islam, Kenney told reporters the attack wasn't connected to Islam in any way.