Diego Miguel Sanchez is no stranger to Capitol Hill.

He’s lobbied.

He’s testified.

And now he’s working on the Hill, a new member of U.S. Rep. Barney Frank’s team in The Rayburn House Office Building. His title, which Sanchez believes will fit on a business card, is “legislative assistant for LGBT, healthcare, labor, veterans, census and Social Security issues.

“It’s really exciting to be able to do during the day the work that I did as a volunteer, and it is an honor to serve Congressman Frank,” said Sanchez, who holds the distinction of being the first openly transgender congressional aide.

Sanchez said his appointment gives him hope for equal employment opportunities for all.

“To me it seems like a window is cracked open and there is some air coming through,” Sanchez said.

At the time of his interview with 365gay.com, Sanchez still was settling into life in Washington, D.C. — looking for a permanent place to live, awaiting the ethics training required of congressional staff, and anticipating receipt of a much-needed and definitely-desired Blackberry to take care of business as business develops.

“It was hit the ground running,” Sanchez said of his first days on the job. “And it’s a blessing to be able to do this job.”

His desk is organized for business with stacks of papers — letters to constituents to review to make sure their queries are answered, stacks of bills to review to decide whether to recommend Frank’s co-sponsorship.

His calendar, less than two weeks into the job, is full of appointments kept and meetings to make.

“I didn’t know what went into the day until it became my day,” Sanchez of the legislative aide’s typical workday on the Hill.

He begins the day reading newspapers — The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Boston Globe.

“After I do that, I come to work,” Sanchez said.

His first task at the office is more reading. He checks Frank’s Internet homepage and that of the Library of Congress. He reviews other congressional Web sites, as well as Roll Call and thehill.com.

“You’ve got to make sure you know what’s going on,” Sanchez said.

He then checks his voicemail and e-mail and then his calendar, which might involve meeting with other congressional aides, constituents and representatives from any number of organizations.

On a recent Thursday, Sanchez’s meetings included discussing the 2009 legislative agenda with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the Anti-Defamation League and discussing healthcare with representatives from the American Psychological Association.

Working to move hate crimes legislation and an employment non-discrimination bill are priorities for Sanchez, as well as enacting healthcare reform.

“Most important for me is making sure I give Congressman Frank proper proposals, making sure what we are proposing benefits the constituents,” he said. “Healthcare is top drawer.”

Sanchez met Frank about 18 years ago at a banquet in Boston.

That night, the representative from Massachusetts said he believed there would be a time to pursue an employment non-discrimination bill that included gender identity, but he felt “this is not that time.”

Sanchez said he appreciated Frank’s honesty.

Now is the time.

Frank is “at a place where he wants to have full inclusion,” Sanchez said.

Prior to going to joining Frank’s team, Sanchez worked with AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts and AIDS Action Council. He also worked in the hotel industry, employment that brought him to Massachusetts in 1991.

Sanchez also lived in Augusta, Ga., where his mother still lives, and describes his childhood as that of an “Army brat.”

In his congressional testimony urging passage of an inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act, Sanchez described a complicated childhood made comfortable by supportive parents.

“When I was 5, I told my parents that I was born wrong, that I felt like a boy inside,” Sanchez testified last summer. “My mother showed me a magazine with Christine Jorgensen on the cover. She told me that she didn’t know if there were other people like me — girls who felt like boys — but that this woman was born a boy, felt like a girl and was able to become a woman later in life.  Mom told me that by the time I grew up, it would be OK.  From that time, my parents gently, privately, dually socialized me, but it was our secret, of sorts.”

He continued, “Mom was mostly right; it’s almost OK for me these days.”

With humor, Sanchez testified, “I am the only male Georgia letterman I know of who earned it on the women’s tennis team.”

His life experience, plus his work experience, made Sanchez an ideal candidate for the legislative post in Frank’s office.

“Barney was thrilled to see my experience and the background I had working with veterans organizations, on labor, in corporations,” Sanchez said. “He said he liked the blend of things.”

Considering the new year and the arrival of a new administration to work with a new Congress, the new legislative aide on Capitol Hill said he expected a lot of progress.

“More for equality. More for health coverage. More protections, more inclusion, for more people,” Sanchez said.