During the recent federal shutdown, the Trump administration renamed Rachel Levine’s portrait at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, replacing her real name with her pre-transition name.
Levine made history in 2021 as the first transgender person to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to a deputy cabinet role, serving as assistant secretary of health in the Biden administration for nearly four years before becoming a four-star admiral in the U.S. Surgeon General’s Commissioned Forces.
Levine’s portrait hangs on the seventh floor of the Humphrey Building in Washington, D.C., along with portraits of other people who have led the U.S. Public Health Service. She made little comment about the dead-naming, saying: NPR It has been an honor to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Health. “I’m not going to comment on these kinds of petty actions,” she said.
Adrian Shanker, a former assistant secretary for health policy who worked with Levine and is now her spokesperson, called the name change “an act of bias against her.”
Shankar said the change in Levine’s portrait was unprecedented and criticized the current HHS leadership, arguing that it should focus on pressing public health challenges instead of “scoring political points and making virtue plays to conservatives by labeling Levine indiscriminately and acting retaliatoryly.”
Asked why the Department of Health changed Levine’s name, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told NPR in an email: “Our priority is to ensure that the information HHS presents internally and externally reflects the gold standard of science. We remain committed to reversing the harmful policies enacted by Mr. Levine and ensuring that biological realities guide our approach to public health.”
A Health and Human Services employee, who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity to avoid professional retaliation, said the incident was “disrespectful” and symbolized “the administration’s erasure of transgender people.”
Throughout the Biden administration, and especially in the run-up to the 2024 election, Trump and his allies used Levine as a political foil, casting her as a diversity talent and attacking her appointment as evidence of left-wing “ideology” and “wokeness.” Memes mocking her have spread widely online, and her image has appeared in several anti-transgender ads.
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has taken steps to curb transgender rights and visibility, starting with an executive order declaring that the United States does not recognize transgender identities as valid. He also banned transgender people from military service and directed Army Secretary Pete Hegseth to begin mandatory discharges of active-duty transgender service members.
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
