Politics

First Openly Transgender Official Wins Senate Confirmation

‘DEEPLY QUALIFIED’

Dr. Rachel Levine was formerly Pennsylvania’s surgeon general, the head of the state’s COVID-19 response.

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Caroline Brehman/Reuters

The Senate confirmed Dr. Rachel Levine to the post of assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services in a 52-48 vote Wednesday. Levine, a transgender woman, is now the first openly trans federal official to receive Senate confirmation. She was previously Pennsylvania’s physician general and a professor at Penn State College of Medicine. President Joe Biden called her “a historic and deeply qualified choice to help lead our administration’s health efforts.”

Read it at Axios

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