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

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

Smith School in Northampton gave Levine the honorary diploma for his work as an “achieved doctor, public well being knowledgeable, and LGBTQ+ advocate,” in accordance with the college’s web site. Levine additionally delivered a graduation tackle to the scholars.

Honorary levels from the faculty aren’t restricted to girls, and the college notes it “will take into account girls who’re exemplars of excellence in a variety of fields, each tutorial and non-academic,” in addition to “people who’ve had a particular influence on Smith School, on the schooling of girls, or on girls’s lives.”

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The varsity’s resolution to honor Levine — who graduated in 1975 from the all-boys Belmont Hill Faculty in Belmont, Massachusetts — prompted a protest final Saturday from the feminist group Girls’s Declaration Worldwide, in accordance with WORLD.

“Tomorrow, [Smith College]—a traditionally girls’s school—will award Richard ‘Rachel’ Levine an honorary diploma,” the group posted on X. “Levine, who pretends to be a lady, will then converse at graduation. We’re on the bottom in Northampton, MA to indicate our help for ladies. Simply 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 lady, will then converse at graduation.

We’re on the bottom in Northampton, MA to indicate our help for ladies. Simply chatted with some alum… pic.twitter.com/x3AoLITlF0

— WDI.USA (@WDI_USA) Might 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 throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, he drew scrutiny after eradicating his personal mom from a private care dwelling regardless of ordering nursing properties and long-term care services to simply accept COVID-19 constructive 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., relating to 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 in opposition to Lia (Will) Thomas, condemned Smith School for honoring Levine and accused the establishment of undermining the supposed beliefs of feminism.

“Smith school, a non-public *girls’s* school in Massachusetts, awarded Rachel (Richard) Levine an honorary diploma right now,” she wrote Sunday. “He then delivered the graduation tackle. Girls, congratulations — your commencement was led by the very factor feminism was allegedly preventing.”

Smith school, a non-public *girls’s* school in Massachusetts, awarded Rachel (Richard) Levine an honorary diploma right now.

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_) Might 18, 2025

Smith School 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, in accordance with her final will and testomony.

“Wise of what the Christian Faith has achieved for my intercourse, and believing that each one schooling ought to be for the glory of God, and the great of man, I direct that the Holy Scriptures be day by day and systematically learn and studied in mentioned School, and with out giving desire to any sect or denomination, all of the schooling and all of the self-discipline shall be pervaded by the Spirit of Evangelical Christian Faith,” she wrote.