He is not a female. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with the Point.

Admiral Rachel Levine, a man who identifies as a transgender woman, was commissioned into the U.S.

Public Health Services Commission Court. Officials called Levine's promotion historic.

Because, they assured everyone, it's the first time a female four-star officer was given the job.

Something like this has announced the way that it was,

surrounded by fanfare, and reporters constantly reminding us that this is a woman. It's not cynical

to wonder whether the job was earned by qualification or by a PR campaign. What is unsettling

is to consider that the military could promote someone more for the photo op than their abilities,

and it's frankly condescending to

the Admiral, although he didn't seem to see it that way. But the most bizarre aspect of this

is the picture that celebrated the first female appointment to the Corps without a single

female in the room. It feels a lot less like a culture that's committed to following the science

and more like a culture headed through the looking glass.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.