Homosexual activists are howling in protest after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the U.S. armed forces to ban drag shows on military installations. That order came just hours before June 1 and the beginning of so-called “Pride Month,” which has become a sacred-like occasion for homosexual activists and their allies in politics, media, and corporate boardrooms.
The U.S. armed forces is an ally of Pride Month, too, and Austin stated so in a statement that recognized “LGBTQ+ Service members.” Yet the public learned last week the defense secretary and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stopped a drag show that was scheduled for June 1 at Nellis Air Force Base.
Bishop Derek Jones, executive director of Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, tells AFN Milley’s job should be an apolitical one because his goal is to bring the “force of military might” against foreign enemies to protect our country.
“He should be worried about the policies and procedures that continue to instill good order and discipline in the military,” Jones says. “Pride does not. Homosexual lifestyle does not. Transgender does not. It has no place in the military – period.”
According to a story in The Hill, the Pentagon defended the ban on drag shows by pointing to a Department of Defense policy on standards and conduct. Hosting a drag event is “inconsistent” with regulations about using DOD resources, Sabrina Singh, the Pentagon’s press secretary, said in a statement to the media.
In the story, The Hill says Republican lawmakers are the supposed culprits behind Austin’s decision. At a March congressional hearing, Austin and Milley were grilled by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) about allowing drag shows on military installations. Both men stated they did not approve of that. Milley told the Republican lawmaker “I don’t agree with those,” and Austin said that it is “not something that the department funds.”
In fact, it was something the Pentagon was funding: Nellis AFB hosted a drag show there in 2021 during drag month.
AFN reported in a May story the U.S. Navy, which is no stranger to open homosexuals, used a wig-wearing drag queen sailor in a recruitment program that ran from October 2022 to March 2023. That sailor, Joshua Kelley, said he had been performing in drag on Navy ships since 2017 under the stage name “Harpy Daniels.”
GOP leaders demanded change
What seems to have changed, however, was Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill publicly shamed top military leaders for allowing it.
In a letter to Austin, which was sent after the hearing, GOP lawmakers asked him to "put an end to any drag shows and any ‘drag queen influencers’ performing in our military," the Hill story noted.
Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO), who authored that letter, is a vocal critic of "wokeness" in the U.S. armed forces, according to the Hill.
Gordon Klingenschmitt, a former U.S. Navy chaplain, tells AFN he was a "little bit surprised" the LGBT-supporting Pentagon put an end to drag queen shows on military bases.
"There is a battle between light and darkness," he says, "between good and evil."
There is a possibility, however, that Austin and Milley will cave in coming days to the White House and to Democrats on Capitol Hill.
In the Hill story, the president of homosexual lobbying group Human Rights Campaign accused Austin of choosing sides with “politics of fear and discrimination peddled by extreme members of Congress.”
In a statement, an organization of current and retired homosexual service members said it was “concerned that censorship of LGBTQ-friendly events sends the message to LGBTQ+ members of the armed forces that wearing their preferred clothing or acting in a manner different from the gender assigned to them at birth is unacceptable.”
