https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/meet-rachel-levine-one-of-the-very-few-transgender-public-officials-in-america/2016/06/01/cf6e2332-2415-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html?fbclid=IwAR0wGub22WIgU2A8ExmPORwfEgsoNMEk8yPpqKK6Ptl8XWJvrbdVKzcuEmA
Sections
Democracy Dies in Darkness
Get 1 year for $29
Sign In
Politics
Meet Rachel Levine, one of the very few transgender public officials in America
Rachel Levine, physician general for the state of Pennsylvania, is interviewed following a press conference at a pharmacy near Harrisburg May 17. Levine is one of the few transgender public officials in the nation. (Bonnie Jo Mount/Washington Post)
By Katie ZezimaJune 1, 2016
HARRISBURG, Pa. — The staid office where Rachel Levine works as the Keystone State’s top doctor is lined with family photos, including one perched high on a shelf that was taken on a vacation long ago, when her children were young and she was a broad-shouldered man named Richard.
Levine is the highest-ranking transgender official in Pennsylvania and one of only a handful serving in elected or appointed offices nationwide. For many Americans, the faces of the debate over transgender rights have belonged to celebrities — activist Caitlyn Jenner or actress Laverne Cox — rather than the lawmakers and state officials wrangling over the issue.
“I’m very grateful and I’m very honored to be one of those officials,” she said. “I take that responsibility very seriously.”
[‘Not about bathrooms’: Critics decry North Carolina law’s lesser-known elements]
Nationwide, there are only three elected transgender officials and a smattering of appointed officials on the state and local level. “It’s really bad. There’s hardly anybody. We don’t really have a plan to get more,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Rachel Levine, physician general for the state of Pennsylvania, dines with her mother Lillian Levine, in Harrisburgon May 16. Levine is transgender and has a close relationship with her mother. (Bonnie Jo Mount/Washington Post)
Levine, 58, is one of the appointed state officials, and her foray into politics was more of a fluke than a concerted effort to work in government. In 2014, she was a top doctor at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and served on the board of Equality Pennsylvania, a statewide gay rights group, when Gov.-elect Tom Wolf (D) asked her to co-chair his transition team for health matters.
Wolf later asked her to serve as physician general. After a few days of debate, she decided to do it, mostly because she thought she could “make a difference from a broader