Remembering founder of Federal GLOBE, Dr. Len Hirsch
By JAMES PATTERSON One of the most dedicated public servants I ever knew was Dr. Leonard P. “Len” Hirsch, a senior policy adviser with the Smithsonian Institution.
Len, who died in 2015 during LGBT Pride Month, was dedicated to his government career and to an organization he founded: Federal GLOBE.
It was my interest in Len’s Federal Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual (GLB) Employees, a government-wide organization representing GLB federal employees with chapters at many agencies, that brought me to meet Len at the Smithsonian in 1992. (Transgender employees were not initially included.) I was an economist at the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. USDA is located across Independence Avenue from the Smithsonian. I told Len I wanted to join the Federal GLOBE.
