She’s Right On!

A couple of years ago I would have said that 99% of the people didn’t know a trans person but now that is changing, the percentage is still high but it is coming down thanks to people like Amy Schneider, Danica Roem, and Dr. Rachel Levine.

‘People fear what they don’t understand’: Rachel Levine, pioneering trans official, on protecting Americans’ health
Dr. Levine discusses why debates over trans rights are so toxic, and how the climate crisis will widen health disparities
The Guardian
By Ed Pilkington
28 December 2021


This year has been excruciating for many Americans who have been battered by Covid, extreme weather disasters and political discord, but for one individual 2021 will be remembered for having propelled her into national prominence.

Rachel Levine has shattered not one but two major glass ceilings this year. In March, she became the first openly transgender person to win confirmation in the US Senate after Joe Biden nominated her as assistant secretary of health.

Then in October she was sworn in as the first openly transgender four-star officer as an admiral and head of the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. At that exalted rank she gets to wear the blue uniform of the corps, which though non-military is one of eight uniformed services.
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Sensitive and supportive medical care has overwhelmingly positive outcomes, she said. “There is so much evidence that trans youth, when they are supported by their family and community and receive the standards of care treatment, they have excellent physical and mental health outcomes.”

She is bring about change, not just for us but she is bring about visibility to use and sometimes she is a lightning rod for the haters. Much of the lightning strikes are coming from politicians.

Much of the toxicity around the trans debate, Levine believes, is whipped up by partisan posturing. “A lot of this is political. There are those who are using these issues as wedge issues in the upcoming election.”

She has personal experience of being targeted by such hostility. Rand Paul, the Republican senator from Kentucky, was rebuked during Levine’s confirmation hearing for his “harmful misrepresentation” of transgender surgery as a form of genital mutilation.

Jim Banks, a Republican congress member from Indiana, was temporarily suspended from Twitter in October for willfully misgendering Levine. In a tweet, he said: “The title of first female four-star officer gets taken by a man”.

In addition to such politically laden hatred, Levine thinks that fear plays a large role in driving much of the transphobic agenda. “People fear what they don’t understand and have experience of. I’m hoping that my appointment, and my being open and out and working for the nation’s public health, will lead to less fear and more acceptance. That’s my goal.”

By being visible it does two things: first people get to see and know a trans person, they see we are just like them. We have all the same wants and likes, that… well we are normal. And second it show the hate we face everyday. They see Rand Paul misgender us, they see transphobic rants against us. We are not going to change everyone, we are not going to change the followers of Trump, we are not going to change the evangelical Christians, but we can change the movable middle.

Being out is not for everyone, but those brave enough to be out can make a huge difference.