“President-elect Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he will nominate Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania’s top health official, as his assistant secretary of health. Levine, a pediatrician, would become the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.”

“The entire nation got to watch her succeed in the face of really difficult attacks,” said state Rep. Brian Sims (D), an LGBTQ activist who has known Levine for years. “Republicans still deny her basic equality, and she focuses on saving their lives." Sims has seen how Levine’s leadership has forced people in the state to better understand the transgender community, and to learn how to address transgender people like her. “Never before have I seen more people proactively, correctly using pronouns,” even some of those who oppose her, Sims said. “She’s robbed people of the false premise that they don’t know any trans people and therefore don’t need to be respectful of trans people.”

“She’s just so highly qualified, regardless of her gender identity,” said Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, who was the first openly transgender appointee in the Obama White House.