Biden health pick Rachel Levine set to become first trans Senate confirmee

Joe Biden has chosen Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania’s health secretary, as his assistant secretary of health. Levine would be the first ever openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the US Senate.

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Levine, a pediatrician by training, has spent the last year as the public face of Pennsylvania’s Covid-19 response. Previously, she spearheaded an adolescent health clinic at Penn State before she was appointed as physician general by the state’s governor, Tom Wolf, and then unanimously confirmed as secretary of health in 2017.

“Dr Rachel Levine will bring the steady leadership and essential expertise we need to get people through this pandemic – no matter their zip code, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability – and meet the public health needs of our country in this critical moment and beyond,” Biden said in a statement. “She is a historic and deeply qualified choice to help lead our administration’s health efforts.”

A graduate of Harvard and of Tulane Medical School, Levine is president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. She has written in the past on the opioid crisis, medical marijuana, adolescent medicine, eating disorders and LGBTQ medicine.

Levine is already one of the few transgender elected officials in the country. When she was tapped by Wolf for health secretary, she said she sat down to have one-on-one conversations with officials to talk about medicine and public health, according to the Washington Post.

“With very few exceptions, my being transgender is not an issue,” she told the Post.

But that doesn’t mean she hasn’t faced harmful rhetoric and discrimination. Amid discussion over North Carolina’s transgender bathroom bill, the chairman of the Texas Republican party once tweeted: “You’re in a public restroom and this person walks in. What do you do?” Attached to the post was a photo of Levine.

In her new post, Levine would serve with Biden’s pick for health secretary, Xavier Becerra, and coronavirus response coordinator, Jeff Zients.