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Trump Fired Amy Paris, a Top Trans Federal Official. She's Contesting It in Court.

Resist Now 3 min read

Amy Paris Was One of the Most Senior Trans Officials in the Federal Government

Amy Paris served the federal government for 10 years, working across five presidencies in roles tied to digital infrastructure and public health. Most recently, she was deputy digital services lead at the Department of Health and Human Services, where she oversaw organ donation safety systems. She was the second-highest-ranking transgender woman in the federal government, behind only former Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, according to The 19th.

On February 14, 2025, the Trump administration fired Paris. The stated reason was poor performance.

“I have clear evidence in multiple different ways that I was one of the highest-performing people in the entirety of the federal government.”

Amy Paris, former HHS Deputy Digital Services Lead, speaking to The 19th, 2025

Paris disputes the performance claim entirely. She says her firing was part of a deliberate strategy to destabilize government services, not improve them.

DOGE Drove the Firing. DOGE No Longer Exists.

Paris was among thousands of federal employees terminated during the mass layoff campaign run by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE was disbanded in November 2025. At the time of Paris’s firing, DOGE was not a congressionally authorized agency. Trump renamed the U.S. Digital Service as the “U.S. DOGE Service” to sidestep the requirement for congressional approval of a new agency.

Democrats argued at the time that Musk’s agency-gutting actions were unconstitutional. The Constitution assigns each agency’s budget to congressional law, meaning only Congress can alter it. Dozens of dismissed workers filed lawsuits challenging their terminations.

Paris is among those considering legal options.

Transgender Federal Employees Face a Sustained Purge

Paris’s case is not an isolated incident. The Trump administration issued an executive order on January 20, 2025, directing agencies to end recognition of gender identity distinct from biological sex. That order reached into hiring, benefits, and workplace protections across the federal government. Transgender workers in visible or policy-adjacent roles have been among the first affected.

“They are trying to sow discord and disrupt confidence in the workings of the federal government.”

Amy Paris, former HHS Deputy Digital Services Lead, speaking to The 19th, 2025

The organ donation oversight Paris managed did not stop because she was fired. But her departure removed one of the few openly transgender senior officials from federal health infrastructure, at a moment when trans-inclusive healthcare policies were already being reversed across HHS.

What You Can Do Now

  1. Call your senators at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to cosponsor the Federal Employee Anti-Discrimination and Retaliation (FEAR) Act reauthorization. Ask them specifically to demand OPM data on how many trans federal employees have been terminated since January 20, 2025.

  2. Contact the House Oversight Committee at (202) 225-5074 and ask members to subpoena DOGE-era firing records, including those from HHS. Oversight hearings are the only mechanism for making termination criteria public.

  3. File a public comment with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission at eeoc.gov. The EEOC is required by law to track federal workplace discrimination. Demand they publish demographic data on fired federal employees, broken down by gender identity.

  4. Support Paris’s legal effort by tracking it through the ACLU’s case docket at aclu.org/cases. If she files suit, amicus briefs from advocacy organizations require demonstrated public interest. Contacting the ACLU at (212) 549-2500 to flag your interest signals that demand.

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