WASHINGTON — It’s a “sex change” we can believe in.
President Obama has appointed Amanda Simpson, a woman who used to be a man, to a Commerce Department security post — which would make her the highest-level transgender person chosen by a president.
Simpson, who is single and tall with shoulder-length blond hair, is an expert on technology development at defense contractor Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Ariz.
She earned degrees in physics, engineering and business and is a certified flight instructor.
She also used to be Mitchell Simpson, a 5-foot-10, 150-pound test pilot who flew the T-39 and A-3 Sky Warrior in those planes’ development stages for Hughes Aircraft.
She was born in Chicago as the oldest of four boys.
Simpson, who starts work in DC today, will be a senior technical adviser in the Bureau of Industry and Security, where she will evaluate “dual-use” technology sold abroad to make sure it isn’t used by our enemies for military purposes.
Contacted by The Post, Simpson said her appointment was an important milestone because of the “public stigma” against transgender people.
“If my appointment, and the visibility of working in the federal government, helps change a few people’s minds out there and helps people secure a few jobs that they may not have been previously able to get, then I’m thrilled,” she said.
Simpson declined to elaborate on the medical procedures she undertook to become a woman but explained, “I am much more comfortable who I am today than what I was before. I struggled with this my whole life.”
According to a profile in the Arizona Daily Star from 2002, Simpson spent $70,000 for six surgeries around that time to help her look more female, having her Adam’s apple removed, breasts added, and genital surgery.
“If you look at the job she’s taking and at her résumé, this is not a quota appointee,” said Mara Keisling, of the National Center for Transgender Equality.
“She’s unquestionably qualified for the job. The story is . . . not that [Obama] appointed one of us but that finally we have an administration for which that’s not a deal breaker.”