OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Dr. Lance Frye, Oklahoma’s former state health commissioner, has been appointed surgeon general of the Muscogee Nation, the tribe announced Tuesday.
Muscogee Nation Principal Chief David Hill and tribal Secretary of Health Shawn Terry said Frye would be the tribe’s first-ever surgeon general.
“Just as the United States Surgeon General focuses on pressing public health challenges at a national level, Surgeon General Frye will focus on combating the public health challenges we face here at home,” Hill said in a statement.
Frye, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation and senior medical officer for the Oklahoma National Guard, led the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic before abruptly resigning as state health commissioner in October.
His resignation came a day after Gov. Kevin Stitt and other state Republican leaders expressed outrage upon learning the health department had issued a birth certificate with a nonbinary gender designation.
