The Trump administration changed the name on a portrait of former Health Secretary Rachel Levine. She is staying quiet.
Levine, a Pennsylvania doctor who served the state as physician general and secretary of health before joining the Biden administration, described the move as petty.
While the federal government was shut down, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services altered the name under the official portrait of Admiral Rachel Levine, a Pennsylvania doctor who served as the agency’s assistant secretary under former President Joe Biden, to her birth name or “dead name.”
Levine, who had previously served as Pennsylvania physician general and secretary of health under Gov. Tom Wolf, was the first openly transgender official confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
“Deadnaming” — using a transgender person’s birth name rather than the one they chose — is “a horrible thing to do to vilify a group of people,” said Deja Alvarez a LGBTQ community leader. “It’s beyond reprehensible.”
Levine has not spoken publicly about the action, which was first reported Friday by National Public Radio. In a brief statement delivered by her former deputy assistant secretary for health policy Adrian Shanker, Levine described the name change as a “petty action” and said she wouldn’t comment.Shanker, a fellow at the Lehigh University College of Health, manages Levine’s public engagements.
Levine, 68, has received expressions of “sympathy and outrage” since Friday, Shanker said.
Condemning the alteration of Levine’s portrait, he said, it was “hard to understand that this was a priority under a government shutdown.”
”What do you expect from people acting more like high school bullies than federal officials?”
HHS didn’t respond to requests for comment. Agency officials told NPR in a written statement: “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.”
As Pennsylvania’s health secretary, , Levine led the state’s response to COIVID-19 and became a familiar figure in 2020, standing at a lectern in Harrisburg, answering questions about the deadly pandemic..
Prior to the pandemic,Levine, led the state’s response to the opioid epidemic. She also helped establish Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana program.
Under Biden, Levine also worked on issues related to HIV, syphilis, climate change, and long COVID.
Levine was a pediatrician who worked Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center for 20 years before moving into public life.
Throughout her career, Levine “earned ... recognition through decades of expertise and leadership,” said State Rep. Dan Frankel (D., Allegheny) in a statement Tuesday. HHS’s decision to “strip [her legal] name is an act of political malice.”
The Trump administration has made numerous efforts to counter civil rights gains transgender and LGBTQ Americans had previously won.
These include issuing an executive order on Jan. 20 that redefined the word “sex” in federal programs and services to refer only to biological characteristics “at conception” as well as restricting gender-affirming medical care for people under age 19, banning trans Americans from military service and eliminating protections for transgender people.
Staff writer Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.