HHS replaces name on transgender admiral’s official portrait with deadname

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

HHS replaces name on transgender admiral's official portrait with deadname in act of 'pettiness and bigotry'

https://www.advocate.com/politics/hhs-rachel-levine-deadname 🔗

Christopher Wiggins (5 Dec 2025)

The Department of Health and Human Services, under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has removed the name "Rachel" from Adm. Rachel Levine's official portrait, replacing it with her deadname and doing so beneath the mounted glass typically used for permanent institutional displays. Levine was the first transgender person confirmed by the U.S. Senate, something that took place under President Joe Biden.

NPR, which first reported the development, described the setting in stark terms. On the seventh floor of the Humphrey Building in Washington, D.C., portraits of those who have led the Public Health Corps at HHS hang. Levine's portrait was among them until the nameplate was altered.

The modification appears to have occurred during the recent federal shutdown, shortly after Assistant Secretary for Health Brian Cristine was confirmed by the Senate. Such an action during a shutdown raises immediate procedural concerns.

Shutdown rules restrict employees to duties tied to public safety or health emergencies. Altering a portrait, especially removing the frame's glass and replacing it with a different nameplate, does not appear to fall into that category.

[Susan ✅]

If she got a namechange order as you know she did, she should sue to require them to follow the judges order.