Trans Troop Reversal

 President Joe Biden will soon reverse the ban on transgender people serving openly in the military, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Wednesday.

While the reversal was not one of the 15 actions the new administration announced it would take Wednesday, Day One of the Biden presidency, Psaki said it would be among the “additional executive actions” that will be taken “in the coming days and weeks.”

I'm sure you all know I am a transgender veteran and how good I feel about this.

Inauguration Day

FINALLY, I was able to view the former president fly off to Florida on Air Force One. We now have a leader with a mandate to attack the many major problems we face as a nation.

I feel all of us as transgender women and men see change in a different way. After all, when you consider all the major changes we have had to endure in life, change becomes very personal to us.

In many ways, the former president represented the very same pressures we transgender women and men feel from our families when we decide to live as our authentic selves. By deciding to not mention President Biden's name in any way, it is similar to a trans person's father (or mother) refusing to mention the new name of their new daughter or son. 

So, we have a deeper understanding of the hurt the country feels as a whole from the effects of the former president. 

But now we can move forward, which we can understand also in our culture. 

Maybe now, we can have help and acceptance from the administration in Washington.

Rachel Levine

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine to be his assistant secretary of health, leaving her poised to become the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

A pediatrician and former Pennsylvania physician general, Levine was appointed to her current post by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf in 2017, making her one of the few transgender people serving in elected or appointed positions nationwide. She won past confirmation by the Republican-majority Pennsylvania Senate and has emerged as the public face of the state's response to the coronavirus pandemic.