The Brussels Times reports.De Sutter is a gynecologist and head of the department of reproductive medicine at Ghent University.
She is also a veteran politician, having been a member of the European Parliament, the Belgian Senate, and the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe.
She has championed LGBTQ+ rights, women’s equality, and reproductive freedom.She has never hidden the fact that she is transgender, but that “went almost unremarked upon by Belgian media,” the Times notes.
She tweeted that she hopes her appointment will advance trans acceptance elsewhere. LGBTQ+ rights activists expressed that hope too. “De Sutter did not attain her powerful position in the new Belgian government because she is a trans woman who brings.