Dr. Rachel Levine, the senior President Biden health appointee, made history by being nominated as the nation’s highest-ranking openly transgender official and first openly transgender four-star officer.
Aged 63, pediatrician by profession, Dr. Rachel Levine is now an admiral of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She was confirmed as the United States Assistant Secretary for health in a 52-48 Senate vote in March.
To build this solid career, she pursued her academic studies at the Harvard College and Tulane University School of Medicine. Dr. Levine also served as Pennsylvania’s physician general and the state’s secretary of health, working on issues like responding to widespread opioid addiction. Besides, she led a group of 6,000 uniformed public health officers whose duties range far beyond the Covid-19 pandemic.
On her appointment today as the United States first transgender four-star officer, she described this occasion as “momentous” and “historic” during her swearing-in speech and wish that this appointment be the first of many more to come. For the Secretary of Health, Xavier Becerra the appointment of Dr Levine’s to this position is a “giant step forward towards equality as a nation”.
Quoting from the end note of Dr Levine’s speech, “Diversity makes us stronger.”
Young Queer Alliance
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