Trump Campaign Official Misgenders Pa. Health Secretary

August 11, 2020 4:15 am

(AP) – A senior legal adviser to President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign intentionally misgendered Pennsylvania’s secretary of health in a tweet Monday morning. “This guy is making decisions about your health,” Jenna Ellis, an attorney for Trump 2020, tweeted Monday morning. Ellis shared a May 13 news article about a different incident in which Dr. Rachel Levine was misgendered — when KDKA-AM radio personality Marty Griffin repeatedly called Levine “sir” on a press call. Levine is a transgender woman and one of the few openly transgender public officials in the country. “Dr. Levine is laser-focused on assisting Pennsylvanians in the midst of a national pandemic,” Department of Health Press Secretary Nate Wardle told our partners at channel 11 in response to the latest incident. “She does not have time for this nonsense.” The Human Rights Campaign, a LGBTQ civil rights organization, came to Levine’s defense, releasing a statement that dubbed Ellis a “bigot.” Ellis, the former director of the Dobson Policy Center of the James Dobson Family Institute, joined the Trump campaign in November 2019.