#dr levine

Dr. Rachel Levine, the first transgender person to be nominated for a Senate-confirmed position in the federal government, had been seated in her confirmation hearing to become the nation’s assistant secretary of health for a little less than an hour when she was grilled about “genital mutilation” of minor children by a Republican committee member.

“American culture is now normalizing the idea that minors can be given hormones,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said on Thursday, likening standards of care for transgender minors to castration and female circumcision and blaming increasing rates of trans-identified youth on “the social pressure to conform and do what others do.” “Do you believe minors are capable of making such a life-changing decision of changing one's sex?” Paul asked Levine.In response, Levine thanked Paul for his “interest” in the question of transgender medicine, calling it “a very complex and nuanced field with robust research and standards of care that have been developed” by pediatricians.“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,” Levine said.

Levine, who currently serves as Pennsylvania’s secretary of health, is a pediatrician and former state physician general whose handling of the coronavirus pandemic in Pennsylvania has drawn widespread praise, did not address the substance of the question, or attempt to correct Paul’s apparent misunderstanding of medical transition for transgender youth.

Paul, a former self-certified ophthalmologist, repeated his question of whether Levine supported access to hormone blockers and “reconstruction of genitalia” for minors, before relaying the story of Keira Bell, a British citizen who was assigned female at birth before taking puberty blockers and supplemental testosterone as a teenager. Bell, who later de-transitioned when she was an adult, led a court case that effectively blocked transgender children under 16 from medical transition in the United Kingdom. It is not standard medical practice to perform gender confirmation surgery on minors in the United States, and Bell’s surgery was not performed until she was 20.

“I’m alarmed that you’re not saying they should be prevented from making decisions to amputate their breasts or genitalia,” Paul said. “We have always said that minors do not have full rights—will you make a more firm decision on whether or not minors should be involved in these decisions?”Levine reiterated that transgender medicine is “a very complex and nuanced field,” as well as her offer to talk with Paul and his staff about the issue, upon which Paul asked the record to show that she refused to answer his question and likened trans men being given testosterone to hydroxychloroquine being used to treat COVID-19........see rest of article