Transgender community hails nomination of Dr. Rachel Levine to Biden administration Updated Jan 19, 2021; Dr. Rachel Levine is no stranger to derision due to her gender identity. A transgender woman, Levine, Pennsylvania’s Health Secretary, in many ways has reflected back undercurrents of transphobic tendencies in this country. The transgender community has historically fended off personal assails, attacks on its civil rights, and the troubling rates of homicide of transgender or gender non-conforming people. Levine, perhaps unwittingly at times, has served as a role model for the transgender community in Pennsylvania, negotiating hostile attacks even as she tended to the life and death issues of the coronavirus pandemic.