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In a historic decision on Wednesday, the U.S. voted to approve President Joe Biden’s choice of Rachel Levine to become assistant U.S. health secretary, the first openly transgender person to be confirmed by the upper chamber.
Despite fierce opposition from Republican leaders, Levine was confirmed in a relatively close vote of 52-48.
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Levine arrives in Washington D.C. after leading the state of Pennsylvania’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
This comes as the United States continues its attempts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed nearly 545,000 people in the country.
The Senate has confirmed former Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine as the nation's assistant secretary of health. She’s the first openly transgender federal official to win Senate confirmation.https://t.co/5Bd1Y0ridg
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 24, 2021
Levine, who has also served as a pediatrics and psychiatry professor at Penn State University, becomes the first openly trans, Senate-confirmed federal official in U.S. history.
During her confirmation hearing, Republican Senator Rand Paul questioned Levine about her position on gender-affirming surgeries, which the libertarian lawmaker compared to genital mutilation.
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