A report reveals the Trump administration altered the portrait of a transgender health leader Rachel Levine, raising concerns over political interference.
In 2021, former President Joe Biden swore in Adm. Rachel Levine as the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, making history. Levine was the highest-ranking openly transgender federal officer in the country when she assumed the position.
Along with those of previous federal officials who have headed the U.S. Public Health Corps, Levine's portrait is currently displayed in the HHS headquarters. However, according to NPR, the agency changed Levine's identity from her image to her former name in recent weeks.
According to GLAAD, deadnaming is the practice of disclosing or utilizing a transgender person's birth name without that person's consent.
Levine's current spokesperson, Adrian Shanker, a former deputy assistant secretary for health policy in the Biden administration, told NPR that the change is an act "of bigotry against her."
“During the federal shutdown, the current leadership of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health changed Admiral Levine's photo to remove her current legal name and use a prior name,"
Shanker told the outlet.
Serving in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is a "great honor," according to Levine.
“My focus has been and continues to be on public health and health equity. I am not going to comment on this type of petty action,”
she said in a statement to The Independent.
The agency's top goal, according to HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon, "is ensuring that the information presented internally and externally by HHS reflects gold standard science."
The shift is "disrespectful" and demonstrates "the erasure of transgender individuals by this administration," an anonymous HHS employee told NPR.
The Trump administration has worked to restrict transgender and intersex people's rights across the federal government during the past year.
Trump issued an executive order prohibiting transgender individuals from serving in the military shortly after taking office in January. The Supreme Court decided that the directive could be implemented while legal challenges are being resolved. In addition, he issued a second executive order that focused on gender-affirming healthcare.
Additionally, the administration has prohibited citizens from selecting a sex marker on their passports that corresponds with their gender identity.
Last month, some transgender service members filed a complaint against the administration, claiming that when they were compelled to leave the military, their retirement benefits were unlawfully taken away from them.
Levine told NPR in January that she has been the focus of anti-transgender comments during her tenure in the federal administration. She was even included in anti-transgender GOP commercials prior to the 2024 presidential election.
"It was very challenging, but I'm a resilient person and I'm fine,”
Levine told the outlet.
Before entering the Biden administration, Levine was a pediatrician and public health officer in Pennsylvania, according to NPR. On the day when Trump took office for a second term in January, she left her position at HHS.
What reason did HHS give for replacing her legal name?
HHS prophet Andrew Nixon stated the name relief on Admiral Rachel Levine's portrayal aligns internal and external information with" gold standard wisdom" and" natural realities," while committing to reverse her" mischievous programs" on ambisexual health.
The revision, made during the civil arrestment by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health under new leadership, reflects the Trump administration's precedence to guide public health approaches by natural coitus rather than gender identity, as part of broader reversals targeting Levine's term enterprise on COVID- 19, opioids, and LGBTQ care.
NPR attained a digital image showing Levine's deadname inscribed beneath the glass frame in the Hubert H. Humphrey Building hallway, prompting critics like former deputy Adrian Shanker to label it" partisanship," though HHS framed it as scientific delicacy amidanti-trans policy shifts.