General Discussion

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) changed the name of former Adm. Rachel Levine, a transgender woman who served as the agency’s assistant secretary under former President Biden, to her birth name, or “dead name,” on her official portrait.

HHS confirmed on X Tuesday that the department changed the name during the government shutdown, saying that they wanted to depict “biological reality.”

Adrian Shanker, a former Biden administration deputy assistant for health policy who now is a spokesperson to Levine, called the move from the Trump administration “an act of bigotry against her.”

Rep. Rebecca Balint (D-Vt.) was among the critics who blasted the move online.

“All because they’re all so insecure about their own identities that they have to lash out and continue to fan the flames of these culture wars when Adm. Levine was just doing her job every single day,” Balint said on X.