Rachel Levine awarded honorary doctorate by all-women’s college

Former U.S. Assistant Secretary for Well being Rachel Levine, a transgender-identifying man whose unique identify is Richard, was awarded an honorary diploma by a personal liberal arts girls’s school in Massachusetts earlier this week.

Smith Faculty in Northampton gave Levine the honorary diploma for his work as an “accomplished physician, public health expert, and LGBTQ+ advocate,” based on the varsity’s web site. Levine additionally delivered a graduation tackle to the scholars.

Honorary levels from the faculty usually are not restricted to girls, and the varsity notes it “will consider women who are exemplars of excellence in a wide range of fields, both academic and non-academic,” in addition to “individuals who have had a special impact on Smith College, on the education of women, or on women’s lives.”

Get Our Newest Information for FREE

Subscribe to get each day/weekly e-mail with the highest tales (plus particular affords!) from The Christian Publish. Be the primary to know.

The college’s determination to honor Levine — who graduated in 1975 from the all-boys Belmont Hill College in Belmont, Massachusetts — prompted a protest final Saturday from the feminist group Girls’s Declaration Worldwide, based on WORLD.

“Tomorrow, [Smith College]—a historically women’s college—will award Richard ‘Rachel’ Levine an honorary degree,” the group posted on X. “Levine, who pretends to be a woman, will then speak at commencement. We’re on the ground in Northampton, MA to show our support for women. Just chatted with some alum who agree!”

Tomorrow, @smithcollege—a traditionally girls’s school—will award Richard “Rachel” Levine an honorary diploma. Levine, who pretends to be a girl, will then communicate at graduation.

We’re on the bottom in Northampton, MA to point out our assist for girls. Simply chatted with some alum… pic.twitter.com/x3AoLITlF0

— WDI.USA (@WDI_USA) May 17, 2025

Throughout his tenure within the Biden administration, Levine drew consideration for reportedly pressuring a world medical group to take away age limits for body-mutilating gender surgical procedures and different life-altering interventions, which prompted a lawsuit from conservative nonprofit group Judicial Watch final September.

When Levine was well being secretary in Pennsylvania through the COVID-19 pandemic, he drew scrutiny after eradicating his personal mom from a private care house regardless of ordering nursing houses and long-term care services to just accept COVID-19 optimistic residents or face disciplinary motion.

Levine additionally made headlines throughout his Senate affirmation listening to in 2021 when he repeatedly evaded blunt questions from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., concerning genital mutilation and sterilizing kids.

Riley Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer who rose to prominence as a vocal opponent of males in girls’s sports activities after she needed to compete on the College of Pennsylvania towards Lia (Will) Thomas, condemned Smith Faculty for honoring Levine and accused the establishment of undermining the supposed beliefs of feminism.

“Smith college, a private *women’s* college in Massachusetts, awarded Rachel (Richard) Levine an honorary degree today,” she wrote Sunday. “He then delivered the commencement address. Ladies, congratulations — your graduation was led by the very thing feminism was allegedly fighting.”

Smith school, a personal *girls’s* school in Massachusetts, awarded Rachel (Richard) Levine an honorary diploma at present.

He then delivered the graduation tackle.

Girls, congratulations — your commencement was led by the very factor feminism was allegedly preventing. pic.twitter.com/3LJyuNHDDV

— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) May 18, 2025

Smith Faculty was chartered in 1871 after Sophia Smith, who was born in 1796, acquired a fortune from her father and her six siblings who died earlier than she did in 1870. Upon the recommendation of a minister, she willed her cash to endow a girls’s school for the specific goal of glorifying God by educating younger girls within the Christian religion, based on her final will and testomony.

“Sensible of what the Christian Religion has done for my sex, and believing that all education should be for the glory of God, and the good of man, I direct that the Holy Scriptures be daily and systematically read and studied in said College, and without giving preference to any sect or denomination, all the education and all the discipline shall be pervaded by the Spirit of Evangelical Christian Religion,” she wrote.