Admiral Rachel Levine is the first openly transgender person to win Senate confirmation in a four-star federal position.And now she has been in the spotlight again after the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reportedly changed her official portrait in Washington, DC. It is part of the GOP government cracking down on “woke” culture and LGBTQ+ communities. Levine served as former President Biden’s assistant secretary for health for four years, overseeing the Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service. Her official portrait was displayed in a hallway on the seventh floor of the Humphrey Building alongside former Public Health Corps leaders. It has now been altered to show her previous name below the image, a spokesperson for HHS told NPR.HHS updated Rachel Levine’s official portrait to his real biological name: Richard Levine.“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,” said Adrian Shanker, former deputy assistant secretary for health policy and Levine’s spokesperson. He called the move an act “of bigotry against her.”Levine told NPR, “It was an honor to serve the American people as the assistant secretary for health and I’m not going to comment on this type of petty action.”HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon defended the change, saying, “Our priority is ensuring that the information presented internally and externally by HHS reflects gold standard science. We remain committed to reversing harmful policies enacted by Levine and ensuring that biological reality guides our approach to public health.” The current assistant secretary for health, Adm. Brian Christine, was confirmed by the Senate in October.Levine’s tenure included major public health work on Covid-19, syphilis, HIV/AIDS, and the opioid crisis.The row comes amid ongoing anti-transgender actions under the Trump administration. Transgender servicemembers were forced out of the military without benefits, and passport policies were reversed.
