President Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services took Admiral Rachel Levine’s name off her portrait in the Humphrey Building, according to National Public Radio.
Levine, a former director of the Public Health Corps under former President Joe Biden who became the first transgender person to serve in a Senate-confirmed executive role, has a distinguished career in medicine and public health policy. A pediatrician, she also headed the Pennsylvania Department of Health, where she combated the opioid crisis by enacting new policy authorizing law enforcement officers to carry naloxone to rescue overdose victims.
However, she has been a frequent target of attack by the right, with lawmakers and MAGA activists constantly making fun of both her gender identity and physical appearance — an act that appears to be legitimized by Trump’s HHS.
According to NPR, “Levine’s official portrait was recently altered, a spokesperson for HHS confirmed to NPR. A digital photograph of the portrait in the hallway obtained by NPR shows that Levine’s previous name is now typed below the portrait, under the glass of the frame.”
This move triggered immediate outrage, with former deputy assistant secretary for health policy Adrian Shanker saying, “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.” He added that the change is an act “of bigotry against her.”
Levine, asked for comment by NPR, simply said she was honored to have headed the Public Health Corps, “and I’m not going to comment on this type of petty action.”
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