ABOVE: Chai Feldblum (Photo Credit: U.S. Commerce Department)
The White House announced Aug. 13 that President Joe Biden had selected four people to be appointed to the U.S. AbilityOne Commission, which administers the AbilityOne Program, one of the nation’s largest sources of employment for people who are blind or have significant disabilities.
Two of the President’s picks, Gabe Cazares and Chai R. Feldblum, are longtime LGBTQ advocates and have extensive experience in governmental interface for persons with disabilities.
Gabe Cazares currently serves as the Director of Mayor Sylvester Turner’s Office for People with Disabilities in the City of Houston, Texas. In this capacity, Gabe oversees the accessible and timely delivery of city services, programs, and activities for over 215,000 Houstonians with disabilities.
Prior to his appointment, he served as the Manager of Government Affairs at the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore, Maryland. There he managed the organization’s education, technology, immigrants’ rights, LGBTQ, and blind entrepreneur small business policy portfolio. Gabe holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a Spanish minor from Texas State University.
He and his partner, Derin Dacey, live in Houston with their 4-year-old rescue dog, Sam.
Gabe Cazares, Director of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD) for the City of Houston, Texas (Photo Credit: City of Houston)
Upon learning of the appointment, the Office of the Mayor of the City of Houston released the following statements;
“I am grateful to President Biden and his administration for recognizing our strong talent and commitment in the City of Houston. Gabe Cazares is a passionate advocate on issues related to the disability community, and is always willing to roll up his sleeves to create, plan and execute successful programs for the community,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner. “I know in my heart that he will work effectively for President Biden while maintaining a strong presence locally for over 215,000 Houstonians with disabilities.”
Cazares, a Houston native, has described himself as a “Gay disabled policy wonk” and is Latinx and blind commented on the President’s appointment;
“I am deeply honored to be appointed by President Biden to serve on the U.S. AbilityOne Commission,” said Cazares. “My professional career has focused on advancing the full integration of blind and other people with disabilities in every aspect of community life, including education, employment, and civic engagement. Government contracting can and must incentivize the recruitment, retention, and promotion of workers with significant disabilities in integrated environments across all industries. I am privileged to work towards these goals daily under Mayor Turner’s leadership, and I look forward to sharing my expertise at the national level while continuing to serve our local disability community.”
Chai Feldblum is a national expert in disability law and employment. She led the drafting and negotiating of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the ADA Amendments Act of 2008.
As a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, she and her students represented non-profit organizations, including disability rights organizations, in advocating for legislation and administrative regulations to support social justice goals. Chai served as a Commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission during the Obama-Biden Administration, where she spearheaded the issuance of regulations under Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
Those regulations established a goal of 12% representation in the federal workforce of people with all disabilities and a 2% representation of people with significant disabilities. The latter group includes people with the type of disabilities hired under the AbilityOne program.
In the first year of the Trump administration in 2017, the former president had forwarded his nomination of Feldblum to the U.S. Senate for reappointment to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), for a five-year term that would not have expired until 2023.
Her nomination was bitterly opposed by the Southern Poverty Law Center-listed, extremist anti-LGBTQ hate group, the Family Research Council who claimed her positions on sexual orientation and gender identity were dangerous to maintaining religious liberty exemptions.
In November 2020, Feldblum was named a volunteer member of Biden’s presidential transition Agency Review Team to support transition efforts related to the U.S. Department of Justice
Chai, a lesbian, lives and works in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area and has a psychiatric disability of anxiety disorder.
