Julia Curlee says White House fired her over trans identity

Julia Curlee, a former CIA analyst and transgender woman, says the White House dismissed her after her transgender identity was publicized online by far-right influencer Laura Loomer.

Curlee told AFP she had been asked to stay as a senior official at the White House after President Donald Trump returned to power last year. She said she was fired once her gender identity became public and politically difficult for the administration's supporters.

“They needed me. They asked me to stay,” Curlee said. “But the moment my gender identity became public and a political problem with their supporters, that's when they got rid of me.”

Curlee, now in her mid-40s, became the first CIA officer to transition while working at the agency in 2013. She joined the National Security Council in 2017, during Trump's first term, and gave daily intelligence briefings for a year to then-vice president Mike Pence.

Curlee said Pence's views on LGBTQ rights did not affect her work at the time. “He never made it a problem. Everyone in his staff knew that I was transgender, but it wasn't ever an issue,” she said.

After Trump won reelection in 2024, Curlee continued working at the White House for about 10 weeks. She said she was fired in March after Loomer posted on X that a transgender “Biden holdover” was still working in the NSC intelligence office.

A White House spokesperson, responding to an AFP inquiry, said: “Anyone who writes a 3,000-word op-ed bragging about themselves while attacking the President clearly doesn't belong in public service,” referring to Curlee's first-person essay in The Atlantic.

Pence told CNN on Sunday that he and his wife believed in treating others with “decency and respect,” and said he was heartened by Curlee's account of her experience in his office.

Curlee returned to the CIA for less than a year before resigning after 20 years of service. She is now a fellow at Lawfare, a nonprofit publication covering national security.