Trump campaign adviser Jenna Ellis abused Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine, a transgender woman, on Twitter.
“This man is making decisions about your health,” Ellis wrote in a tweetje that included a picture and article about Levine, who has led the Pennsylvania COVID-19 response since the beginning of the pandemic.
Ellis, who was a frequent guest on Fox News before being tapped as a senior legal adviser for the president’s re-election campaign, has a history of making anti-LGBTQ remarks, as NBC News previously reported.
Asked by NBC News about her “public crime” of Levine, Ellis, through a spokesman for the Trump campaign, called the backlog of her remarks “both hilarious and tragic.”
“The truth of biology shows that humans were created unintentionally male and female. Yet in our post-truth society, progressive leftists not only demand that we confirm patented false facts, but also demand that we do not ‘insult’ people.” t insist on speaking out about their lies, otherwise we will be called unfathomable bigots and forced to make excuses, ”Ellis explained. “I will not excuse it.”
The White House declined to comment.
A spokeswoman for Levine, one of the country’s most high-profile transgender officials, told NBC News that the doctor “has no time for this nonsense” when asked for a response to Ellis’ tweet.
“Dr. Levine is laser-focused in helping Pennsylvania in the midst of a national pandemic, ”said Nate Wardle, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Last month, in response to a stream of transphobic remarks, Levine took time for her daily coronavirus briefing to make a personal statement explaining “the multiple incidents of LGBTQ harassment and specifically transphobia directed at me in ‘ the press have been reported. “
“Our kids watch – they watch what we do and they watch how we act,” Levine said. “And to all LGBTQ youth: it’s OK to be you, and it’s OK to stand up for your rights and your freedoms.”
Ellis’ transphobic remark about Levine is not the first time she has made an anti-LGBTQ remark publicly. In 2016, she called the designation of the historic Stonewall Inn in New York as a national monument a “celebration of sin.” And just last year, she announced the Star Wars franchise’s plan to include LGBTQ characters – who ultimately amounted to a second-long smooch – in a post on Facebook that has since been deleted.
“Why not also a Christian? Or a Muslim? Or a pedophile? Or any other representation of every subculture, religion and lifestyle?” Ellis wrote. “This overwhelming need to have ‘LGBT’ representation ‘everywhere shows the falsity of their cry for equality. They want absolute subjugation of culture.”
In response to Ellis’ transphobic tweet, Rep. Brian Sims, a Democrat from Philadelphia, Levine “Pennsylvania a world-class public health expert who has saved countless thousands of lives” and a “hero for LGBTQ + people like me and does not deserve your mockery if ridiculed.”
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