Friday, March 10, 2023

Jill Biden gives award to transgender woman on International Women’s Day

Our Foreign Staff
Thu, March 9, 2023 

Jill Biden awards Alba Rueda, from Argentina, on International Women’s Day 
- Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America

US Republicans have criticised Jill Biden, the First Lady, after she presented an award for women to a trans woman on International Women’s Day.

Argentinian Alba Rueda was one of 11 people chosen as recipients of the International Women of Courage Award paying tribute to women around the world “who are working to build a brighter future for all", according to the US State Department.

Ms Rueda became the first openly-transgender Argentinian politician to hold a senior position in government, serving as Undersecretary of Diversity Policies in the country’s Ministry of Women, Genders and Diversity between January 2020 and May 2022. She is currently the foreign ministry’s special envoy for sexual orientation and gender identity.

In a lavish ceremony at the White House, Ms Rueda was introduced as a "transgender woman who was kicked out of classrooms, barred from sitting for exams, refused job opportunities, subjected to violence, and rejected by her family”.

“But in the face of these challenges, she worked to end violence and discrimination against the LGBTQ plus community in Argentina."

US conservatives were quick to criticise the award.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Republican Governor of Arkansas, said: "It’s International Women’s Day – a good time to remember that Democrats can’t even tell you what a woman is."

Dana Loesch, a conservative commentator, criticised the First Lady for encouraging “the diminishment of women on ‘international women's day’”. Jennifer Barreto-Leyva, a podcaster and board member of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly, said: "This is disgraceful and unacceptable!"

The International Women of Courage Awards have run since 2007. “Girls everywhere need to know that there are women fighting for them and winning,” Ms Biden said on Wednesday, before the ceremony began.

“Opening doors, transforming schools and communities and governments, building a better world for all of us.

“And, we’re also here to say to their brothers and fathers and husbands and friends: as much as we need women who are willing to speak up, we need more men who are willing to listen and act.”


'You have to stand up to bullies': How Rachel Levine fights for LBGTQ people as highest-ranking transperson

Deborah Barfield Berry, USA TODAY
Wed, March 8, 2023

WASHINGTON – Rachel Levine didn’t hesitate to speak to a group at Texas Christian University in April about her frustrations with states proposing anti-trans bills.

"We have to stand up. We have to take a stand on behalf of those who are being hurt. We have to be doctors. This is what we do, even when it’s difficult," she told the medical conference.

Levine became the highest-ranking openly-trans official in the country last year when she was confirmed as assistant secretary for health for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Levine said it’s important to use her platform to advance policies that help the LGBTQ community and also important to push back against those that cause harm, including the anti-trans bills. The measures would ban transgender women from competing on women's sports teams and some would ban medical care for trans youth.

“I learned many years ago that you have to stand up to bullies,’’ Levine told USA TODAY. “These state actions constitute bullying.”

Other LGBTQ people in high-profile posts in the Biden administration include Karine Jean-Pierre, the first Black woman and openly gay White House press secretary, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who was confirmed last year as the first openly gay Cabinet secretary.

“It's not that they are gay that's important, it’s that they are there and that they are gay,’’ said Rodney Coates, a professor of critical race and ethnic studies at Miami University in Ohio. ‘‘They are there because people have confidence in them."

Beyond the leadership posts, administration officials have taken other steps to recognize LGBTQ communities.

At the start of Pride Month this June, the Department of Energy raised the Progress Pride flag at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

In April for Lesbian Day of Visibility, the White House hosted a roundtable, including senior LGTBQ leaders in the administration and top officials at federal agencies, including Levine. President Joe Biden also recognized Transgender Day of Visibility in March.

Polls show more Americans, especially younger people, feel comfortable talking about their identity and advocating for their communities.

“They're coming out of the closet,’’ Coates said. “It matters if they can help forge coalitions. I think part of the attacks on the LGBTQ community is to put them back in the closet.”

Levine, who served as Pennsylvania's secretary of health, has been a public figure, particularly as a top health official during the COVID-19 pandemic. With Pride Month underway, USA TODAY talked to Levine about her role in the administration. Some answers have been shortened for clarity and brevity:

You were a guest in April when the White House hosted its roundtable for Lesbian Day of Visibility. Do you think it made a difference?

It makes a difference for those young people and their parents, their families to see support at the highest levels. That support matriculates throughout the country. But we understand the challenges before us and so we need to continue and redouble our effort.

Can you speak to some of the challenges you think the LGBTQ community faces?

There is significant pushback in the states…That pushback is politically motivated. And I think that it is extremely harmful the actions that states are taking such as in Texas and Florida and Alabama and others that target vulnerable trans and gender diverse young people and their families. We need to fight that even harder in support of diversity, equity and inclusion for the transgender community, especially to empower our trans youth.

What does that fight look like? How does it play out?

There are three pillars for us in the administration. One is advocacy. And that means speaking out publicly in support of the LGBTQ+ community broadly, but in this case, particularly trans youth and gender diverse youth and their families... We need to continue to work on policy. For example, our Office of Civil Rights has declared that its interpretation of Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, that when it says you cannot discriminate on the basis of sex that that includes sexual orientation and gender identity... In addition, the Department of Education is writing its interpretation of Title IX that you cannot discriminate on the basis of sex and that includes sexual orientation and gender identity.

Was there a particular moment in your new role where you felt you had to say or do something that impacted the LGBTQ community?

I co-chair the Health Disparities Council for the secretary and within HHS and as part of that health equity work that includes advocating for sexual and gender minorities, so the LGBTQ+ community. We have a coordinating committee and LGBTQI Coordinating Committee across HHS that is looking at this work and looking at data and research studies, but also discussing rules and regulations.

Sounds like making that speech in Texas kind of meant a lot to you.

I’ll be doing it again. We're not done. We have to continue to stand up… I learned many years ago that you have to stand up to bullies. These state actions constitute bullying for example when they are limiting the ability of transgender youth and gender diverse youth to receive gender affirming care in their states. Gender affirming care is medical care. Gender affirming care is mental health care and gender affirming care literally is life-saving care. They are putting these young people's lives at risk by limiting their access.


Rachel Levine, the first openly transgender person to be confirmed to federal office by the U.S. Senate, serves as an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services under the Biden administration. During her confirmation hearing, Levine spoke about the need to understand transgender individuals' medical needs and the overall lack of access to medical help in the transgender community.

You noted different policies of the agencies and the administration. What about Congress? Has Congress done enough?

Congress has not done enough. The president has spoken out very publicly about his support of the Equality Act. The Equality Act is critical in terms of putting into statute the rights of sexual and gender minorities and for the LGBTQI+ community.

You mentioned some of the criticism you faced after the speech in Texas and I know there was some criticism after you were featured in USA TODAY’s Woman of the Year series. Were you surprised, alarmed, troubled by that?

I use the negative pushback that I received, and receive not infrequently, as fuel and motivation to continue my work in public health. I am able to sublimate that, my feelings, my thoughts and feelings to further fuel my work.

It doesn’t hurt sometimes?

I learned in my clinical days to compartmentalize things. So when I received those criticisms, I'm able to compartmentalize them. I process them later with my family and my friends, and then again… to sublimate that into my work.

How do you see your role in bringing about change? How do feel about your mission?

I have always felt tremendously gratified by my career in medicine. In academic medicine at Penn State College of Medicine, I was able to see patients and their families and try to help them in pediatrics and specifically adolescent medicine. I was able to teach students and residents and others about how to do that. I was able to do clinical research about how to do it better and then to develop programs, basically, to help people.

In my public service, first in Pennsylvania, and then now nationally, I am able to do that and to help people with a broader brush from that public health and public service perspective. And so what could be more gratifying than that?

Contributing Mabinty Quarshie and David Jackson

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Transgender rights are a top mission for Rachel Levine on Biden staff

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