A San Diego Navy doctor was removed from command last week after right wing activists began sharing screenshots of her LinkedIn account on X.
Cmdr. Janelle Marra is a Navy physician with 21 years of service. According to her Navy biography, she's spent most of her career in the San Diego area, splitting time between San Diego Naval Medical Center and Camp Pendleton.
On her LinkedIn account, Marra lists she/her pronouns and her bio says she's the "Navy deputy medical director for transgender healthcare."
Libs of Tiktok, an account on X that shares anti-LGBTQ+ conspiracies, tagged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth when she quote-tweeted a screenshot of the account saying, "Yikes" and asking Hegseth to "look into this."
That evening, Hegseth in turn quote-tweeted Libs of Tiktok writing, "Pronouns UPDATED: She/Her/Fired."
A Navy official with knowledge of the matter told KPBS Hegseth ordered Marra be fired. The official, who is not authorized to comment publicly on the case, said the official cause for Marra's removal was "a loss of trust and confidence in her ability to command," which is boilerplate rationale used by the Navy to justify all manner of firings.
Marra's social media use is now under investigation, the official said.
Marra did not respond to a request for comment.
Space Force Col. Bree Fram knows Marra. Fram is retiring from the service due to the Trump Administration's ban on trans people.
"I've known (Marra) as an exceptionally qualified doctor who was responsible for taking care of a huge number of sailors and Marines, and has done incredible work over the course of her career of nearly two decades as a military medical officer," Fram told KPBS in an interview Friday.
She spoke to KPBS as a private citizen, not in her official capacity as a Space Force officer.
Fram is an outspoken advocate of trans service members and said she's been targeted by Libs of Tiktok herself.
"I received all sorts of threats — phone calls, voicemails — people found everything about me and left messages that I should kill myself," Fram said. "All sorts of incredibly unpleasant hate about me and my family."
According to Marra's profile on LGBTQ+ Healthcare Directory — an online database of healthcare providers — she identifies as bisexual and specializes in treating trans and nonbinary people.
A Defense Health Agency spokesperson told KPBS the title of Navy deputy medical director for transgender healthcare does not exist. Under the Biden Administration, the Pentagon considered establishing a Transgender Health Center but never did.
"It was considered last year, and the services were asked to nominate personnel, but it was never established," the spokesperson said.
They said they did not know if Marra was nominated for the position.
