As she makes history, Dr. Rachel Levine stays focused on healing

Dr. 雷切尔·莱文(Rachel Levine)想从事健康工作，因为她想帮助人们. Along the way, she became an icon.

Levine, 卫生与公众服务部负责卫生事务的助理部长, 她在今年3月创造了历史，成为首位获得参议院批准的公开跨性别官员. 但她说，她的职业生涯并不是为自己寻求关注. It's been about healing – as a pediatrician, teacher, researcher and Pennsylvania's health secretary, fighting the opioid epidemic and COVID-19.

She's not opposed to using her status to help spread her message. “我很高兴能在健康公平、平等和公正方面为LGBTQ群体发声. And I feel that I have been able to do that in Pennsylvania. And I'm able to do that nationally now."

尽管她在六月的大部分线上电子游戏飞禽走兽里都在接受有关“骄傲月”的采访, she makes clear it all comes back to health.

"There are numerous studies done to show that, unfortunately, LGBTQ individuals, and particularly transgender individuals, sometimes face challenges in accessing our health care system," she said. 感到受到歧视的LGBTQ人群通常不会寻求治疗.

In her new job, she hopes to address that problem and more. At 63, she has had a lifetime to prepare.

"I decided in high school, after I took my first biology class, that I was interested" in being a doctor, she said, and the Massachusetts native soon found work in a lab in Boston. “我接触过研究人员，也接触过外科医生和住院医生."

她曾就读于哈佛大学和新奥尔良杜兰大学医学院, where she was drawn to the developing field of adolescent medicine. 她最终成为宾夕法尼亚州立医学院的儿科和精神病学教授，并在宾夕法尼亚州立好时医疗中心担任过几个职位.

After Democrat Tom Wolf became governor of Pennsylvania in 2015, she became the state's physician general, then secretary of health.

She is quick to point out that does not make her a politician.

"I've never run for office," she said. "I think that there are political considerations in public health. But I really consider what I've been doing over the last six, seven years to be public service and public health."

By any name, she's good at it, said her friend Michael Fraser, 国家和地区卫生官员协会的首席执行官. 当拜登总统提名莱文担任新职务时，她是该协会的主席.

"There's lots of different ways to do that work of healing," Fraser said, "and I think that's what's really driving her. Not the politics. Not the agendas. Not celebrity. But the work of healing."

Fraser, who lives in Harrisburg, had a front-row seat as Levine tackled first the opioid crisis, then found herself leading Pennsylvania's COVID-19 response.

Fans celebrated her with a Facebook page using what Philadelphia magazine said were "words typically reserved for Jesus and maybe Oprah.反对者用宾夕法尼亚州LGBTQ事务委员会(Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs)所说的“我们委员会近年来在我们的联邦看到的一些最卑鄙、最有害的跨性别恐惧症”来侮辱她."

She handles the abuse well, Fraser said. "But I know it hurts. It would hurt anybody."

In the face of all that, she tends to stay positive. Fraser said that's not an act. 这是一种回馈十多年前她在变性过程中帮助过她的人的方式.

"I think that I was fortunate," Levine said. "I received support from the people I worked with. I received support from my family. And I think that has had a significant influence."

Overall, she said, "I'm a positive and optimistic person. And I, you know, I have learned to compartmentalize ... that negative feedback and just keep doing my job."

Not that she's afraid to speak up. At a press conference last July, 她斥责攻击她的人培养了一种不容忍和歧视的精神, 告诉他们，虽然他们“可能认为他们只是在表达对我的不满”, 他们实际上伤害了宾夕法尼亚州成千上万的LGBTQ人，他们直接遭受了“这种骚扰”.

她现在说，那句话不是为了她自己的感受. “我之所以反击，主要是因为我觉得这些言论和线上电子游戏飞禽走兽报道可能会伤害到其他LGBTQ群体, and particularly LGBTQ youth."

莱文经常引用她最喜欢的电影角色尤达来解释她对人身攻击的态度, from the "Star Wars" films. 当被问及她希望人们从她的生活和事业中吸取什么教训时，她再次引用了他的话.

"Fear is the path to the dark side," she said. "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. And so I think it is so important not to live your life in fear, and to be yourself and to help people. And that's what I've tried to do."

Perhaps showing her political savvy, 她很高兴地承认自己也是原版《线上电子游戏飞禽走兽》(Star Trek)的粉丝(最喜欢的角色:Mr. 斯波克)，但拒绝就她更喜欢哪一部科幻系列这一引发争议的话题发表意见. "It's 50-50," she said.

Then, she quickly turned the focus back to health, 延长采访线上电子游戏飞禽走兽以加强对献血的紧急呼吁. “我们的血液严重短缺，我们真的需要人们出去献血. I wanted to make sure I was able to add that."

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