A Biden-era health official who identifies as transgender is outraged that the Department of Health and Human Services changed his nameplate to show his real name, Richard Levine, instead of the name he chose for himself, Rachel Levine.
“I’m not going to comment on this type of petty action,” Levine told NPR, calling the move by the Trump administration "petty” and an act of “bigotry.”
However, a spokesperson for Levine, Adrian Shanker, issued a statement confirming the move. He said: “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.”
The HHS argued that the change was made to better express a “gold standard science” at all times, unapologetically confirming the move on X, reposting the headline and writing, "Can confirm!"
Can confirm! https://t.co/PdErnBJVqh pic.twitter.com/yuZGMfK6xw
— HHS (@HHSGov) December 9, 2025
“Our priority is ensuring that the information presented internally and externally by HHS reflects gold standard science,” HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said. “We remain committed to reversing harmful policies enacted by Levine and ensuring that biological reality guides our approach to public health.”
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During his time in the Biden administration, Levine claimed to be the “first female four-star officer” in a video boasting about “diversity” at HHS. He also supported so-called transgender "care" for minors, and advocated for censorship when it came to those who disagreed with him on the issue.
“There is substantial misinformation about gender-affirming care for transgender and gender-diverse individuals,” Levine said in May of 2022. “We need to get our voices in the public eye, and we know how effective our medical community can be talking to communities, whether it’s at town halls, schools, conversations with others, and we need to use our clinicians’ voices to collectively advocate for our tech companies to create a healthier, cleaner information environment.”
Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
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