Sam Brinton

Samuel Brinton (born c. 1988)[1] is an American nuclear engineer and LGBTQ activist appointed to be the deputy assistant secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy in January 2022.[2] As of 2019, Brinton was the head of advocacy and government affairs at the non-profit LGBTQ youth suicide prevention organization The Trevor Project.[3] Identifying as gender-fluid, Brinton uses they and them pronouns.[1]

Sam Brinton
NationalityAmerican
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology
OccupationNuclear engineer, LGBTQ activist

Raised in Perry, Iowa, their parents were Southern Baptist missionaries who disapproved of Brinton's attraction to a male friend from school.[4] Brinton graduated from Kansas State University with a Bachelor of Science in nuclear engineering and vocal music. They have a dual Master of Science degree in nuclear engineering, technology and policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[5] Brinton is married.[6] They told Metro Weekly they are an animal roleplay enthusiast.[7]

As a youth, Brinton experienced conversion therapy and in a January 2018 New York Times Op-Ed described it as "barbaric" and "painful",[8] and with the Trevor Project, founded the #50Bills50States campaign to have the practice banned.[9] Calling themself a survivor of conversion therapy, Brinton was the first of such individuals to testify before the United Nations Convention against Torture regarding the practice in November 2014.[10]

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.[11] In February 2020, the website of Deep Isolation, a Berkeley, California, nuclear waste storage and disposal company,[12] listed them as its Director of Legislative Affairs.[13]

Yahoo! Lifestyle noted that Brinton "may be the first openly gender-fluid person in federal government leadership" after they were selected by the Biden administration to be the deputy assistant secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy for the Department of Energy in January 2022.[9]

Publications

References
  1. Compton, Julie (January 19, 2017). "OutFront: LGBTQ Activist Fights to End Conversion Therapy". NBC News. Archived from the original on February 11, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
  2. Forgey, Quint; Ward, Alexander (January 11, 2022). "Inside Biden's secretive weapons shipment to Ukraine". Politico. Archived from the original on February 11, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
  3. Fitzsimons, Tim (September 4, 2019). "'Doesn't surprise me': Conversion therapy survivors on another ex-therapist coming out". NBC News. Archived from the original on February 11, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
  4. Basu, Rekha (April 16, 2016). "Basu: Surviving torture of anti-gay 'therapy'". The Des Moines Register. Archived from the original on February 11, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
  5. "Samuel Brinton, M.S." Kansas State University. Archived from the original on February 11, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
  6. "Sam Brinton Saves The World". MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society. May 5, 2021. Archived from the original on June 13, 2021. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
  7. Riley, John (January 14, 2016). "Puppy Love". Metro Weekly. Archived from the original on July 8, 2017. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
  8. Brinton, Sam (January 24, 2018). "Opinion | I Was Tortured in Gay Conversion Therapy. And It's Still Legal in 41 States". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
  9. "New Biden Dept. of Energy hire is a nonbinary drag queen — 'an asset,' say queer activists". MSN. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  10. Margolin, Emma (November 13, 2014). "UN panel questions gay conversion therapy in US". MSNBC. Archived from the original on February 13, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
  11. Eller, Donnelle (January 10, 2016). "Engineer Sees a Power Source in Nuclear Waste". The Des Moines Register. p. 13. Retrieved February 18, 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. Conca, James (January 14, 2022). "EU Nuclear Waste Organizations Conclude Deep Borehole Disposal Great Option For Nuclear Waste". Forbes. Archived from the original on February 13, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
  13. "Our Team". Deep Isolation. February 2020. Archived from the original on February 24, 2020. Retrieved February 18, 2022.
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