The first openly transgender federal official dismissed outrage over the Transgender Day of Visibility coinciding with Easter and quoted a “Star Wars” character to mock detractors.
Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Rachel Levine, who was born a man but identifies as a woman, made the comments in an interview with the Advocate published Monday.
“I felt that it was faux outrage,” said Levine about the controversy. “It was manufactured.”
The official pointed out that it was a coincidence that Easter fell on the same day as the Transgender Day of Visibility.
“It’s just that this Sunday was Easter, which is a very important holiday and very important event, and it also just happened to be the 31st,” Levine explained.
The official went on to claim that acceptance of the LGBTQ+ was growing in the U.S. as more “education” about nonbinary and transgender is imposed on people.
“You know there’s a quote from Yoda (not baby Yoda, that’s new). ‘Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering,'” said Levine. “I think that things will get better. And I think that things for transgender and nonbinary people will improve.”
President Joe Biden was criticized for releasing a proclamation in favor of the Transgender Day of Visibility, but he raised even more alarm when he was asked to comment on the criticism and he denied making any statement about the day.
“I call upon all Americans to join us in lifting up the lives and voices of transgender people throughout our Nation and to work toward eliminating violence and discrimination based on gender identity,” read the statement attributed to Biden.
On Monday, when asked by reporters about comments from Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, the president didn’t remember making the statement.
“He’s thoroughly uninformed,” said Biden of Johnson. “I didn’t do that.”
“If Biden didn’t do it, who signed his name to the official proclamation,” responded Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri. “It’s bad enough he deliberately desecrated the most sacred holy day in the Christian faith. Then he lies about it.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Levine claimed that the attacks are motivation to put more effort into pushing the LGBTQ agenda.
“The more I’m attacked, the more it motivates me to work harder and to advocate more,” Levine said.
Here’s more about the trans Easter outrage:
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