‘An out gay woman’: Karine Jean-Pierre hopes to empower LGBTQ youth as White House press secretary – USA TODAY
Karine Jean-Pierre makes history as first openly LGBTQ person and first woman of color to serve as White House’s top spokeswoman
- Karine Jean-Pierre hopes to be role model she never had as a young gay woman
- Jean-Pierre met Biden when she worked at the White House under Barack Obama
- Jean-Pierre worked as White House’s No. 2 spokeswoman before succeeding Jen Psaki as press secretary
WASHINGTON – When she was 5, Karine Jean-Pierre knew she was different. Embarrassed and ashamed, she hid her feelings from her family for years.
When she was 16, she finally confessed her secret to her mother: She was gay.
“It devastated her,” Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, recalled in an interview with USA TODAY. “She hated – hated – the fact that I was gay or hated the fact that I said that to her. And it destroyed her.”