Dr. Jennifer Carroll MacNeill:

We are using it in a gender way, but it is much broader. I will provide the committee with an example from Australia which has a completely political appointments system. An outstanding judge, Michael Kirby, was appointed to the High Court in Australia as the first openly gay judge. He was here in 2007 talking about this and he said he would never have been appointed by his peers because he was not quite the fit at the time. It was politicians who had the courage, freedom and ability to look beyond what might have been a barrier elsewhere and make an appointment of his kind.