President-elect Joe Biden has picked
Rachel Levine to become assistant secretary for health.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Levine
would become the first openly transgender Senate-confirmed federal
official.
Levine currently serves as the
Pennsylvania secretary of health and as a professor of pediatrics and
psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine. In her capacity as
state secretary of health, Levine leads Pennsylvania's response to
COVID-19.
In a statement, Biden said that Levine
was needed to help shepherd the United States through the coronavirus
pandemic.
“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. “She is a historic and deeply qualified
choice to help lead our administration's health efforts.”
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the
nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, applauded Levine's nomination.
“Dr. Rachel Levine, a highly
experienced and qualified public health leader, has led
Pennsylvania’s public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic
superbly,” HRC President Alphonso David said in a statement. “At
a time when access to health care is a growing crisis for transgender
people made worse by anti-LGBTQ legislation and legislators across
the nation, Dr. Levine has the empathy to understand the health needs
of our diverse country and the skillset to improve them.”
Biden has also nominated Pete
Buttigieg, a gay man, to serve as secretary of transportation.
(Related: Biden
names Ned Price, a gay man, as State Department spokesperson.)