Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will serve as a grand marshal at this year’s New York City Pride.

“It goes back to that trail-blazing career that she’s had in politics and representing the community at the highest microphone that exists,” NYC Pride spokesperson Chris Piedmont said in a statement.

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Jean-Pierre served under President Joe Biden and was the first out LGBTQ+ person and first Black person to hold the role. She also became the first gay woman to lead a White House press briefing when she was deputy press secretary. under Jen Psaki.

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In 2020, she served as Kamala Harris’s campaign chief of staff, making her the first Black person to serve as chief of staff to a vice-presidential candidate and one of the highest-ranking LGBTQ+ people in the Biden-Harris campaign.

During Obama’s first term, she worked in the White House Office of Political Affairs. Outside of her work with political campaigns and the government, she was the national spokesperson for the progressive organization MoveOn in 2016, a commentator for NBC News and MSNBC, and a lecturer at Columbia University.

The NYC Pride march will take place on June 29 at noon. Piedemont said the other grand marshals will be announced soon.

In the meantime, Jean-Pierre is taking some time for herself. She told People that since the Biden administration has ended, she’s been focusing on “self-care, sleep, hanging out with my family, hanging out with my friends.”

“It was an honor and a privilege to have the job and to have done it for two and a half years, but I don’t miss it,” she said.

During her final press briefing at the White House, she expressed “sincere hope” that while she “may be the first for many things at this podium,” she is “not the last.”

“I hope my presence at this podium has served as inspiration to many young girls out there who took – who look at me and look at this job, and look at what we’ve been able to do and have a similar background as me, and hopefully they can follow their dreams and never give up.”

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