Admiral Rachel L. Levine, pictured at HHS headquarters last year, led the Public Health Corps during the Biden administration. Her official portrait was changed during the government shutdown to her previous name.
Maansi Srivastava for NPR
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Maansi Srivastava for NPR
Walking down a specific hallway on the seventh floor of the Humphrey Building in Washington, D.C., you’ll see a line of photographic portraits of past leaders of the Public Health Corps at the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
Among those portraits, only one belongs to a transgender individual: Adm. Rachel Levine, who served as President Biden’s assistant secretary for health for four years. She made history as the first transgender person to be Senate-confirmed, and her portrait has been on display in the hallway since her confirmation in 2021. In her role, she oversaw the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service.
Recently, Levine’s official portrait was altered, as confirmed by an HHS spokesperson to NPR. A digital photo of the portrait obtained by NPR shows Levine’s previous name now displayed below the portrait, beneath the glass of the frame.
Levine’s Response
“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,” says Adrian Shanker, former deputy assistant secretary for health policy in the Biden administration who worked with Levine and is now her spokesperson. He called the move an act “of bigotry against her.”
