Rachel Levine Becomes First Trans Person to Become Four-Star Official

It finally happened, folks. You can now rest easy knowing that the United States has its first transgender four-star officer “across any of the eight uniformed services,” according to AZ Central, a USA Today publication. 

You can also take solace in the fact that this “brave and beautiful” trans woman was sworn in as the country’s first trans four-star official “across any of the eight uniformed services” despite not having any military background whatsoever.

The trans “woman” who received the commendation is none other than Assistant Secretary of Health and former top health official for Pennsylvania Rachel Levine. Levine is eligible for the four-star designation because Levine is the head of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

The USA Today interviewed Levine concerning his/her new role and spoke about what he/she will do “under her leadership” when it comes to “the mental health needs of transgender and nonbinary youth.”

We will be pulling together a group. In fact, we already have a group in terms of our LGBT coordinating council. We are going to be discussing this with our partners such as  SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services), CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)and HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) to discuss what specific recommendations and guidelines we can make for vulnerable LGBQT + and particularly transgender youth. This is the face of, unfortunately, very challenging legislation in other states, that seek to remit care, standard of care, for those youths. So we will be developing recommendations.

Who knew all I needed to do was to claim I'm a woman, and someone will give me gold stars like I'm in kindergarten? 

For video of Levine’s swearing-in ceremony, watch below: