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.
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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 TribLIVE 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.”
“Jenna Ellis is a bigot and Dr. Levine is a patriot — plain and simple. Dr. Levine illustrates character and patriotism while Ellis cannot even define those terms,” said the statement from HRC President Alphonso David, according to the Trib. “Using a person’s pronouns is a basic level of respect. Despite claims of allyship, Donald Trump, Mike Pence and their staff have gone out of their way to dehumanize and attack transgender and non-binary people simply for existing.”
Ellis, the former director of the Dobson Policy Center of the James Dobson Family Institute, joined the Trump campaign in November 2019, TribLIVE reported. A Fox News contributor, she has taught at law at Colorado Christian University and is the author of “The Legal Basis for a Moral Constitution: A Guide for Christians to Understand America’s Constitutional Crisis.”
[ READ: Local official under fire for wishing Dr. Rachel Levine ‘Happy Father’s Day’ on Facebook ]
This is the latest attack targeting Levine’s gender identity. Several local officials in Pennsylvania, including a Scott Township Commissioner and a Trafford Councilman, have made disparaging or sarcastic remarks about Levine.
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