Hello, and welcome to GirlBoss Radio. I'm Puno, your host. It's great to meet you.

If this is the first episode that you're listening to of me, thanks for showing up.

If you're like, who is? Why is she talking to me? Why do I have this voice?

Well, you'll know why if you check out the last episode where Sophia is actually passing the torch to a new GirlBoss.

But otherwise, you're in the right spot, and thanks for showing up.

In June of 2015, the hashtag LoveWinds, it was all over social media, and it was in celebration of the Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.

A huge cheer than singing as the decision reaches the crowd out front.

The historic ruling struck down the bans on same-sex marriage still in effect in 14 states, all of them in the South and the Midwest.

It was already legal everywhere else.

That evening, the White House just lit up in rainbow colors to celebrate this critical step forward in our nation's long struggle for equality.

And while this struggle is far from over, that summer of 2015, it's a reminder that our democracy plays a pretty big role in creating a more equitable world.

A world that wouldn't be possible, if not for the work of really courageous people.

On today's episode of GirlBoss, we're going to hear from one of these courageous people, someone who's been an advocate for equality almost her entire life.

Rafi Friedman-Gurseman is a lot of things. She's a trans Latina, a Jewish American, she speaks Norwegian, she's adopted, and she's a former high school cheerleader.

Rafi was named after her great-grandmother, who's a suffragette, and has spent her career advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion from the smallest municipalities to the highest office in the land.

That's right, the White House.

Rafi is someone who reminds us that America is a place where countless identities intersect.

And because she has so many identities, Rafi knows just how important other people's stories are.

It's a perspective that's informed her advocacy work.

Work, she's built a career around, and work that is driven by the belief that change in this country can happen within the walls of our institutions, despite how broken they still are.

And she has the proof to back this belief, because by August of 2015, a few months after that historic decision, Rafi became the first openly transgender person to serve as a White House staff member.

Rafi broke barriers.

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