Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania’s secretary of health, had her senate confirmation hearing today to be ushered in as America’s newest assistant secretary of health when she was berated with uneducated, false, anti-trans comments by Rand Paul.
According to the Daily Beast, Paul asked Levine, “American culture is normalizing the idea that minors can be given hormones. Dr. Levine, you have supported both allowing minors to be given hormone blockers to prevent them from going through puberty as well as surgical destruction of a minor’s genitalia…Do you believe minors are capable of making such a life-changing decision as changing one’s sex?” Paul went on to describe gender confirmation surgery as “amputation.”
Dr. Levine calmly responded, “If I’m fortunate enough to be confirmed, I will look forward to working with you and your office and coming to your office to discuss the particulars of the standards of care for transgender medicine.”
Paul’s remarks are unfounded, offensive, and were clearly meant to stoke his conservative base. As the Courier-Journal states, “Health care providers generally don’t prescribe hormone therapy to, or perform genital surgery on, prepubescent transgender minors, and there are existing guidelines for transgender health care and gender affirmation therapy backed by the American Medical Association and other groups.”
This is yet another example of Republican politicians spewing lies and falsities, with the sole purpose of trying to hurt and intimidate members of vulnerable minority groups.
For transgender resources, visit GLAAD’s Trans Resource page.
