Letter to the editor: Changing Levine's portrait label an act of hatred

Many of our citizens did not recognize that in Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential election victory, the country had elected not only a commander in chief, but someone who would have the authority to serve as our moral arbiter, even determining our sexual orientation for us.

Our powerful leader who told us that he can do “anything I want as president” has demonstrated with the help of a supine Trump-dominated Supreme Court that his assertion was largely correct. Case in point is Trump’s credo that those who are different from most of us shall be seen as nonexistent and that they shall be dishonored and disgraced. Hence, the administration has changed the name of former Assistant Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine on her official portrait to her birth name, Richard Levine.

This is an act of hatred, division and bigotry, and I suppose it should not be a surprise that it occurred within an administration whose hallmark is to inflict pain upon the innocent and the vulnerable, and to instigate culture wars.

Oren Spiegler

Peters