Federal Government
Adm. Levine celebrates trans joy on Transgender Day of Visibility
‘We continue to live a life of joy in the face of adversity’
The day after Sunday’s Transgender Day of Visibility observance, the Washington Blade connected with Adm. Rachel Levine, a pediatrician serving as assistant secretary of health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“Trans joy means authenticity and being comfortable in your own skin and being able to be who you are,” said Levine, who is the highest-ranking transgender official in U.S. history.
“With my transition, I was able to be my authentic self,” she remembers. “At that time, I was still a professor at the Penn State College of Medicine, and an attending physician at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center in pediatrics and adolescent medicine, but then I had this unique opportunity to become the physician general of Pennsylvania for then-Gov. Tom Wolf, and then two and a half years later to become the Secretary of Health.”
“So it has been a tremendous journey, which has been very rewarding,” Levine said, adding that it has been “an honor” to work for the Biden-Harris administration under HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra — all allies of trans, nonbinary, and gender expansive folks and of the LGBTQ community more broadly.
Levine recounted how Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, himself the first openly gay Senate-confirmed Cabinet secretary, had singled her out as one of the administration’s other high-ranking LGBTQ appointees during a 2021 Pride celebration at the White House.
At that moment, President Joe Biden “looked me in the eye and, you know, kind of gestured for me to stand up for the applause,” she remembered, and “I thought that that was just truly meaningful and shows his compassion and his attention to the people working for him and his administration.”
At the same time, Levine’s tenure has, unfortunately, come with bigoted attacks from the likes of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), but she said part of trans joy means “we fight hate with love, and we continue to live a life of joy in the face of adversity.”
“For me personally, I am able to compartmentalize those attacks,” she said. “You know, and I’ve learned this in my clinical work as a pediatrician, where, if you are in the emergency department or in the office or in the hospital and you have a very sick patient in front of you, you have to be able to function as a professional and compartmentalize your feelings and then be able to bring them out later and process them.”
Levine explained, “And so it’s the same thing so that if I am attacked, I’m able to compartmentalize any emotions about that and then I work that through with my friends and my family.”
“In addition, though, I’ve also learned the art of sublimation where, you know, the more people attack me, then I’m able to turn that around and it serves as motivation for me to work harder and advocate more.”
Rather than herself, Levine said, “What I worry about are the most vulnerable in our community, who I think it can be very challenging for, particularly in these times, to vulnerable transgender and nonbinary youth, their families, and even their medical providers in many states across the country.”
Levine shared her thoughts about the public’s eroding faith in science, medicine, and institutional expertise — themes that often arise in the context of debates over gender affirming healthcare, as guideline-directed and medically necessary interventions that are supported by every mainstream medical society have come under fire from right-wing politicians.
“There is a lot of misinformation and overt disinformation about transgender medicine,” she said. “You know, transgender medicine is an evidence-based standard of care, which continues to benefit from continued research and evolution from, you know, standards 10 or more years ago to the current standards now published.”
Levine added, “Transgender medicine is absolutely necessary for transgender and gender diverse people including youth — and transgender medicine is medical care, but it’s also mental health care, and it’s literally suicide prevention care” that has “been shown in study after study to improve the quality of life and can literally save lives.”
Transgender medicine “for young people [is often] conducted at many of our nation’s expert children’s hospitals,” Levine said. “Let me put it this way: if you have a child with a fever, you would take your child, perhaps, to a pediatrician. If they had severe diabetes, you would take them to a pediatric endocrinologist. If they had a mental health condition, you might take them to a child psychiatrist or psychologist.”
“So,” she said, “if you have a child with gender questions or gender issues then you’re going to take them to the pediatric and adolescent gender specialist, and it’s often a team — including the same endocrinologist and it might be the same psychiatrist or psychologist.”
“You’re not going to think, ‘oh, I’m going to call my state legislator.'”
Nevertheless, Levine said, “These issues have been politicized for political and ideological reasons” over the objections of physicians like Jesse Ehrenfeld, president of the American Medical Association, who during a panel discussion with Levine for the PFLAG National convention in November, agreed that politicians should not get between patients, their families, and their healthcare providers.
“We see other areas where there’s misinformation and disinformation,” Levine said, perhaps partly a consequence of the politicization of the public health response to the COVID pandemic, which has led to vaccine hesitancy for COVID as well as childhood immunizations.
Ultimately, she said, “physicians and other medical and public health professionals are trying to help people,” which is “what I tried to do when I was in academic medicine” where “I really worked to help people, the patients and families that I saw as well as teaching as well as clinical research — and I think, overall, that’s what most physicians and medical professionals and public health professionals are doing.”
Exciting work ahead at HHS
When it comes to the work in which her agency is engaged, Levine said “health equity is fundamental to everything that we’re doing at HHS under Secretary Becerra and so many of our key policy initiatives relate to health equity.”
“So,” she said, “that includes health equity for the LGBTQI+ community, working to end the HIV epidemic in the United States with a focus on health equity, working to safeguard LGBTQI+ youth from the harms of conversion therapy, promoting data equity for our community, SAMHSA’s work on on conversion therapy, ARC’s work in terms of a sample patient intake form to improve the patient care experience for LGBTQI+ people, and more.”
“We have an office of climate change and health equity with a sister office of environmental justice,” Levine added. “We’re working on health equity in terms of reproductive health and reproductive rights, in the face of the Dobbs decision,” which revoked the constitutional right to abortion.
“We’re working in terms of health equity in regards to food and nutrition,” she said, “in terms of long COVID, and more.”
As with many initiatives under Biden’s presidency, “There is a tremendous emphasis on breaking down silos within divisions at HHS and between departments,” Levine said.
She shared a few examples: “One is our work on long COVID. We have an office of long COVID research and practice, which is really working across the administration with that whole of government approach. Another is in terms of our work on climate change and health equity with the EPA, and the White House Climate Council.”
“And then another actually would be our work on syphilis,” Levine said. “We run — and I chair — a syphilis and congenital syphilis federal government task force, which includes all the divisions at HHS, but also includes the VA and the Department of Defense, trying to address the significant increases in syphilis and congenital syphilis that we’ve seen the United States.”
And then, “Another example within the LGBTQ space is a global interagency action plan about conversion therapy, which includes HHS, the Department of State, the Department of the Treasury, and USAID.”
Federal Government
Markwayne Mullin confirmed as next DHS secretary
Okla. senator to succeed Kristi Noem
The U.S. Senate confirmed Markwayne Mullin as the next secretary of Homeland Security on Monday, as the agency continues to grapple with what lawmakers have described as a “never-ending” funding standoff, with Democrats attempting to withhold funding from one of the nation’s largest and most costly agencies.
Mullin — a Republican senator from Oklahoma, former mixed martial arts fighter, and plumbing business owner — was confirmed in a 54–45 vote. Two Democrats — U.S. Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) — sided with Republicans in supporting his confirmation.
The new agency head is expected to follow the policy direction set by President Donald Trump, emphasizing stricter immigration enforcement. This includes proposals to support immigration agents at polling sites and to cut funding to so-called “sanctuary cities.”
Mullin replaces Kristi Noem, who was fired earlier this month following a widely scrutinized 2-day congressional hearing on Capitol Hill.
During the hearing, Noem faced intense questioning over her response to several crises, including the fatal shooting of two American citizens in Minneapolis by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, a $220 million border security advertising campaign that featured her on horseback near Mount Rushmore amid one of the largest federal workforce reductions in U.S. history, and the federal response to major natural disasters such as the July 2025 Texas floods and Hurricane Helene in 2024.
Noem had previously drawn criticism for a series of policy decisions in South Dakota that broadly focused on restricting the rights of LGBTQ individuals. In 2023, she signed House Bill 1080, banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. She also signed legislation and executive orders restricting trans athletes’ participation in women’s sports, as well as the state’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” which critics argued enabled discrimination against LGBTQ individuals. Additionally, the state canceled contracts related to LGBTQ support services — including suicide prevention and health care navigation programs‚ and later agreed to a $300,000 settlement with trans advocacy group, The Transformation Project.
Despite her removal from DHS, Noem will remain in the Trump-Vance administration as a special envoy for the “Shield of the Americas,” an initiative aimed at promoting U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere, including efforts to counter cartel networks, reduce Chinese influence, and manage migration.
The new head of DHS has served in Congress since 2013, in both houses of the federal legislature. While in the Senate and a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Mullin has been a vocal critic of policies aimed at expanding LGBTQ inclusion. He led a group of lawmakers in urging the Administration for Community Living to reverse a rule requiring states to prioritize Older Americans Act services based on sexual orientation and gender identity, arguing the policy could have unintended consequences.
Mullin also makes history as the first Native American — and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation — to lead the Department of Homeland Security. He was also among the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results despite no evidence of widespread fraud, and was present in the U.S. House of Representatives chamber on Jan. 6.
Federal Government
Protesters say SAVE Act targets voters, transgender youth
Bill described as ‘Jim Crow 2.0’
Members of Congress, advocates, and people from across the country gathered outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday to protest proposed federal legislation that voting rights activists have deemed “Jim Crow 2.0.”
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require in-person proof of citizenship for anyone seeking to vote in U.S. elections.
President Donald Trump has also pushed for the proposed legislation to include a section that would ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, even with parental consent, and prohibit trans people from participating in school or professional sports consistent with their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth.
In addition to changing voter registration requirements, the bill would limit acceptable forms of identification to documents such as a birth certificate or passport — records that the Brennan Center for Justice estimates more than 21 million Americans do not have — effectively restricting access to the ballot. It would also ban online voter registration, DMV voter registration efforts, and mail-in voter registration.
A 2021 investigation by the Associated Press found that fewer than 475 people voted illegally or improperly, a tiny fraction of the estimated 160 million Americans who voted in the 2020 election.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) spoke at the event.
“It will kick millions of American citizens off the rolls. And they don’t even require you to be told,” the highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate told protesters and reporters outside the Capitol. “If this law passes — and it won’t — you’re gonna show up in November … and they’ll say… sorry, you’re no longer on the voting rolls.”
He, like many other speakers, emphasized the bill in the context of American history, pointing to what he described as its racist roots and its impact on Black and brown Americans.
“I have called this act, over and over again, Jim Crow 2.0 … because they know it’s the truth.”
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was one of the lawmakers leading opposition to the legislation and spoke at the rally.
“It’s not just voting rights that are on the line — our democracy is on the line,” the California lawmaker said. “It’s not a voter I.D. bill. It’s a bait and switch bill.”
He added historical context, noting the significance of voting rights legislation passed more than 60 years ago. In 1965, Alabama civil rights activists marched to protest barriers to voter registration. Alabama state troopers violently attacked peaceful demonstrators at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, using tear gas, clubs, and whips against more than 500 — mostly Black — protesters.
“61 years ago — not to the day — but this week, President Lyndon Johnson came to the Capitol and addressed a joint session of Congress in the wake of Bloody Sunday and pushed Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act,” Padilla said. “61 years later, Donald Trump and this Republican majority wants to take us backwards. We’re not gonna let that happen.”
U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) also spoke, emphasizing that he views the effort as a Republican-led and Trump-backed attempt to restrict voting access, particularly among Black, brown, and predominantly Democratic communities.
“President Trump told Republicans when they were meeting behind closed doors that ‘The SAVE Act will guarantee Republicans win the midterms and ensure they do not lose an election for 50 years,’” Luján said. “The first time I think Donald Trump’s been honest … This voter suppression bill is only that. Taking away vote by mail? I hope my Republican colleagues from states that voted for Donald Trump or where vote by mail is popular have the courage and the backbone to stand up and say no to this nonsense, because their constituents are going to push back.”
U.S. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) also spoke.
“Our Republican colleagues have already cut Medicaid, Medicare, people don’t know how they’re gonna be able to afford energy,” she said, providing context for the broader political moment. “We’re in the middle of a war that they can’t even get straight while we’re in it and don’t have a way to get out of it. And we are now faced with defending our democracy?”
She then showed the crowd something that she said has been with her throughout her political journey in Washington.
“I brought with me something that I carried on the day that I was sworn into the House of Representatives when I was elected in 2016, and I carried it with me on the day that I was sworn in as United States senator. And I also carried it with me when I was trapped up in the gallery on Jan. 6 and all I could think to do was pray … This document allowed my great great great grandfather, who had been enslaved in Georgia, to have the right to vote. We took this and turned it into a scarf. It is the returns of qualified voters and reconstruction code from 1867. This is my proof of what we’ve been through. This is also our inspiration.”
“I got to travel between the Edmund Pettus Bridge two times. And even as I thought about this moment, I recognized that while we wish we weren’t in it, while we don’t know why we’re in it, I do know we were made for it … So I came today to tell you that, um, just like the leader said, that he calls it Jim Crow 2.0. I call it Jim Crow 2.NO.”
Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy organization in the U.S., also spoke, highlighting the impact of the bill’s proposed provisions affecting trans people.
“This bill is not about saving America. This bill is about stealing an election. This bill is about suppressing voters,” Robinson said. “This bill not only tries to disenfranchise voters that deserve their right to vote, it also tries to criminalize trans kids and their families … It tries to criminalize doctors providing medically necessary care for our trans youth.”
The SAVE Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 11 but has not yet been considered in the U.S. Senate.
Federal Government
Gay Venezuelan man ‘forcibly disappeared’ to El Salvador files claim against White House
Andry Hernández Romero had asked for asylum in US
A gay Venezuelan asylum seeker who the U.S. “forcibly disappeared” to El Salvador has filed a claim against the federal government.
Immigrant Defenders Law Center, who represents Andry Hernández Romero, on Friday announced their client and five other Venezuelans who the Trump-Vance administration “forcibly removed” to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, filed “administrative claims” under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
The White House on Feb. 20, 2025, designated Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, as an “international terrorist organization.”
President Donald Trump less than a month later invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which the Associated Press notes allows the U.S. to deport “noncitizens without any legal recourse.” The White House then “forcibly removed” Hernández, who had been pursuing his asylum case in the U.S., and more than 250 other Venezuelans to El Salvador.
Immigrant Defenders Law Center disputed claims that Hernández is a Tren de Aragua member.
Hernández was held at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum-security prison known by the Spanish acronym CECOT, until his release on July 18, 2025. Hernández, who is back in Venezuela, claims he suffered physical and sexual abuse while at CECOT.
“As a Venezuelan citizen with no criminal record anywhere in the world, I would like to tell not only the government of the United States but governments everywhere that no human being is illegal,” said Hernández in the Immigrant Defenders Law Center press release. “The practice of judging whole communities for the wrongdoing of a single individual must end. Governments should use their power to help every person in the nation become more aware and informed, to strengthen our cultures and build a stronger generation with principles and values — one that multiplies the positive instead of destroying unfulfilled dreams and opportunities.”
Immigrant Defenders Law Center filed claims on behalf of Hernández and the five other Venezuelans less than three months after American forces seized then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, at their home in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.
Maduro and Flores have pleaded not guilty to federal drug charges. Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president, is Venezuela’s acting president.
‘Due process and accountability cannot be optional’
Immigrant Defenders Law Center on Friday also made the following demands:
- The Trump administration must officially release the names of all people the United States sent to CECOT to ensure that everyone has been or will be released.
- The federal government must clear the names of the 252 men wrongfully labeled as criminal gang members of Tren de Aragua.
- DHS (Department of Homeland Security) must end the practice of outsourcing torture through third‑country removals, restore humanitarian parole, and rebuild a functioning, humane asylum system.
- DHS must reinstate Temporary Protected Status for all individuals who cannot safely return to their home countries, halt mass deportations and unlawful raids and arrests, and guarantee due process for everyone navigating the immigration system.
- Congress must pass the Neighbors Not Enemies Act, which would repeal the Alien Enemies Act.
“In all my years as an immigration attorney, I have never seen a client simply vanish in the middle of their case with no explanation,” said Immigration Defenders Legal Fund Legal Services Director Melissa Shepard. “In court, the government couldn’t even explain where he was — he had been disappeared.”
“When the government detains and transfers people in secrecy, without transparency or access to the courts, it tears at the basic protections a democracy is supposed to guarantee,” added Shepard. “What this experience makes painfully clear is that due process and accountability cannot be optional. They are the only safeguards standing between people and the kind of lawlessness our clients suffered. We must end third country transfers, restore the asylum system, and humanitarian parole, and reinstate temporary protective status so this nightmare never happens again.”
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