Last week President Joe Biden announced his nomination of Dr. Rachel Levine for assistant secretary of health, making her the first transgender Cabinet-level nominee in U.S. history. But since the major announcement, Levine — who is currently the Pennsylvania Secretary of Health — has been subjected to a transphobic smear campaign by conservatives who have risen in opposition to her potential appointment.
In a major show of support, more than 350 LGBTQ+ groups and various other advocacy organizations have signed onto a letter commending Levine’s appointment in the Biden-Harris administration.
The group of signatories highlighted many of Dr. Levine’s qualifications in a letter addressed to the U.S. Senate, including her work on adolescent medicine, eating disorders, LGBTQ+ medicine, and the opioid crisis. They also strongly emphasized how Levine’s role as Pennsylvania’s top health official would make her effective in the fight against COVID-19.
“As Secretary of Health for the 6th most populous state in the country, Dr. Levine routinely works with the Assistant Secretary of Health’s office to build critical bridges between federal and state policies on the pandemic and more,” the letter states, noting that her election as the current president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials demonstrates high regard for her leadership from other public health leaders. “To have a former state Secretary of Health in the ASH position in the coming months, when there is an urgent need for closer alliance between federal and state pandemic policies, will be invaluable.”
“We are confident that Dr. Levine is the best possible candidate to serve as Assistant Secretary for Health in this time of extraordinary demands on our public health system,” the letter concludes. “We strongly urge you to confirm this appointment.”
LGBTQ+ groups and other organizations that signed onto the letter include Lambda Legal, GLAAD, the National LGBTQ Task Force, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, The Trevor Project, the National LGBT Cancer Network, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Various faith groups, social service organizations, health centers, and LGBTQ+ community centers were also among those who joined in support.
Shortly after the announcement of Levine’s nomination, conservative media outlets and personalities doubled down on transphobic attacks.
As NBC News reported, Breitbart, a far-right media outlet, misgendered and dead named Levine while appearing to make light of her previous public appeals for people to stop making anti-trans remarks. Others, including former Daily Wire editor Ben Shapiro, denigrated and falsely characterized Levine’s health record as Pennsylvania’s top health official, including misinformation about Levine removing her mother from a nursing home while patients with COVID-19 had been moved in. Fox News opinion host Tucker Carlson also derisively referenced Levine’s gender as “sexual orientation or sex life or whatever, her personal life.”
“It’s really rich to see right-wing media figures pretend they’re so concerned with Dr. Levine’s record on Covid,” Brennan Suen, LGBTQ program director of Media Matters, a media watchdog group, told NBC News. “These figures are acting like they’re taking COVID so seriously all of a sudden so they can attack Dr. Levine; at the same time, they’re relentlessly spreading misinformation about COVID, and about masks, and about gatherings.”
Last summer, Levine was also misgendered by Jenna Ellis, a senior adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, in a quoted tweet above a news story in which Levine asked the public to stop misgendering her. “This guy is making decisions about your health,” Ellis tweeted in defiance. She refused to apologize after public backlash.
Although she’s faced transphobic attacks from conservatives, Pennsylvania’s right-leaning Senate has confirmed Levine on three different occasions, including a unanimous confirmation vote on her 2015 appointment as the state’s physician general.
If confirmed, Levine would oversee the Office of the Surgeon General and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, in addition to several health offices and programs under the Department of Health and Human Services. She would also become the nation’s highest ranking transgender official to date.
“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,” President Biden said, in a statement posted on the administration’s transition website. “She is a historic and deeply qualified choice to help lead our administration’s health efforts.”
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