President Barack Obama has quietly used the power of his executive office to advance the cause of the smallest segment of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community: transgender Americans, according to the Associated Press. In his first term, President Obama became the first president to use the word “transgender” in a speech. During his first term Mr. Obama also named transgender political appointees and prohibited bias against transgender government workers.

According to estimates by the Williams Institute, a think tank at UCLA, .03 percent of United States adults are transgender people.

In its article Five things to know about transgender people, The Washington Post reports that President Obama was exposed to a transgender person early in his life. When Mr. Obama was a boy growing up in Indonesia, he had a transgender nanny. The Washington Post reports that two years ago the nanny told the Associated Press that when she was around her young charge she did not dress as a woman; the young future president “did see me trying on his mother’s lipstick, sometimes,” said the former nanny.

As attitudes change toward the treatment of transgender individuals, the terms that describe their transformation from one gender to the other are also evolving.  What was previously called a “sex change” operation is now described as “gender reassignment” or “gender confirmation,” reports The Washington Post.

President Obama has continued his quiet revolution on behalf of transgender Americans by using his executive branch power to ensure gender reassignment is covered by government insurance programs, as well as making it easier for transgender persons to update their passports and seek access to public school restrooms and sports programs.

President Jimmy Carter made history during his administration when he met with gay rights groups. President Obama is the first president to invite transgender children to the annual Easter egg roll at the White House.