A video spreading across X claims Rachel Levine, the highest-ranking openly transgender official serving in the U.S. federal government, performs a pagan prayer ritual in a wooded area. But the clip has been manipulated; the original images show Selena Fox, founder of a nature spirituality church in the state of Wisconsin.
“Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. ‘Rachel’ Levine is also a high pagan priestess. Get behind me, Satan,” says a November 19, 2024 post on X.
The 18-second clip appears to show Levine, in a purple dress, alternately opening her palms and touching a stone in front of her as she sings, “Equinox power of equinox right, equinox balance of day and night.”
Screenshot of X taken on November 21, 2024
Similar messages targeting Levine, President Joe Biden’s assistant secretary of health and the first openly transgender official confirmed by the Senate, spread across X after newly elected President Donald Trump accused anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had nominated to head the same desk. The video also circulated on Facebook.
“Don’t worry about Robert Kennedy Jr. taking Rachel Levine’s job. She’ll be fine,” says one of many posts on Ministry of Health and Human Healthcare. Services, with Levine.
The messages came in the middle a wave of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and when Republicans in the House of Representatives moved to ban newly elected Democrat Sarah McBride, who is about to become the first openly transgender member of Congress, from using women’s restrooms in the US. Capitol.
But the video is altered, with Levine’s face superimposed over another woman’s body.
“ADM Levine is not the person in that video,” Adam Sarvana, director of communications and external engagement for Levine’s office, told AFP in a Nov. 21 email, using an abbreviation for admiral — her rank in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. .
A reverse image search revealed that the original images show Selena Fox, the founder, senior minister and high priestess of Circle Sanctuary, a nature spirituality church in Wisconsin (archived here). Fox posted it to Instagram on September 15 (archived here).
Other videos Fox posted days later show her in the same outfit, including the purple dress (archived here and here).
Fox told AFP that the version circulated online had been changed from her September 15 Instagram post. She said she found out her video had been tampered with when someone she knew came across the fake on Xand that she attempted to report the unauthorized use of her content to have the false posts removed.
“This was not done by me and not with my consent,” she said on November 21. “Nobody contacted me to ask permission.”
“It is my original content, and the glasses applied to my face are not glasses I would wear.”
Photos of Levine and Fox make it clear that they are different people (archived here).
PresentationBiden-Harris transition team
Handout / Biden-Harris Transition Team
Screenshot from Facebook taken on November 21, 2024
Siwei Lyu, director of the university bee Buffalo’s Media Forensic Lab analyzed the spoofed clip using deepfake detection technology and said it is “a likely face-swap deepfake” (archived here).
“This is not a very well-made deepfake, as we can observe some edges of the split areas in the face showing different colors,” he told AFP in a Nov. 21 email.
Fox said she is not transgender but supports equal rights for all people. She said she helped with several celebrations on November 20 for Transgender Day of Remembrance, making the timing of the messages “terrible”.
“I think it’s important for people to be aware of and stop anti-trans hate and bigotry,” she said.
She added that she considers the deepfake an insult to her religion.
“I do not appreciate this misuse of cyberspace and harming my religious freedom, my freedom of expression and my creative work,” she said.
AFP has debunked other misinformation about the LGBTQ community here.
