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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   16082 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 19, 2022

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Yeah, whatever about Brinton's real qualifications, there is no way that their previous advocacy for LGBT causes didn't come up, even on the application as to "So what were you working at for the past few years?" While they did do work in the field of nuclear waste disposal, they were also out and about in LGBT affairs:

Calling themselves a "survivor" of conversion therapy, Brinton was the first such individual to testify before the United Nations Convention against Torture regarding their experience in November 2014, as the advisory committee co-chair of the National Center for Lesbian Rights' #BornPerfect campaign. Brinton held the position until at least September 2015.

Brinton, on December 1, 2016, founded the #50Bills50States campaign with the goal of prohibiting the pseudoscientific practice of conversion therapy throughout the U.S.

In 2016 and 2018, Brinton was the principal officer for the Washington DC chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an LGBTQ charity and human rights group.

From 2017 to 2019, Brinton was the head of advocacy and government affairs at the non-profit LGBTQ youth suicide prevention organization The Trevor Project.

Work they did in the field:

In 2016, Brinton was a senior policy analyst for the Bipartisan Policy Center, lobbying for updated regulations so nuclear waste can be used to power advanced nuclear reactors. In February 2020, the website of Deep Isolation, a Berkeley, California, nuclear waste storage and disposal company, listed them as its Director of Legislative Affairs and in May 2022 they were its Director of Global Political Strategy. In 2022, Brinton's profile at the Department of Energy (DOE) indicated their previous work with the Breakthrough Institute, the Clean Air Task Force, and Third Way.

2022, Brinton became a deputy assistant secretary at DOE, serving in the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition.

In February 2022, an unidentified Department of Energy employee filed allegations of hiring malpractice with the Office of the Inspector General due to concern regarding Brinton's qualifications for a Senior Executive Service (SES) level position, i.e. "the class of federal career officials who rank just below top presidential appointees in seniority".

So they were indeed qualified for the job, but. And it's that "but" which is causing all the queries. Would Brinton have been hired if they had been "Samuel Otis Brinton, cis white bisexual man, he/him pronouns"? Maybe. But what about "Samuel Otis Brinton, cis white straight man, he/him pronouns"? All the publicity about "first non-binary gender-fluid person in federal government leadership" does mean that the question of "is this a diversity hire first and foremost?" will be asked. And then we have the two charges of stealing luggage, which only muddies the water even further. Sexual fetish? Impulse control disorder like kleptomania? Any more shoes to drop (as it were) when it comes to sticky fingers or other misdeeds?

One form of affirmative action that I've heard about is that, when two or more candidates appear to be equally qualified, and one belongs to a historically marginalized group, that candidate should be chosen. As I said above, when it comes down to this kind of decision, the choice is arbitrary, and I don't see any harm in the affirmative action method.

Yeah, but that does rely on them not blotting their copybook, like having little habits such as robbing other people's property. "We hired this stunning brave and valid token representation" looks like a bad decision when it becomes "and they're a thief/other criminal behaviour" because then you don't have the cover of "but they were really, really qualified!", so the rejoinder is "Well maybe you should have picked the equally qualified boring conventional type, there might be a chance they wouldn't turn out to be a whacko".

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