“Wokester” Pentagon Lands in the Crosshairs of Right Wing Media
By Kevin Howley, June 27, 2023
For transphobes, queer bashers, and drag queen haters, Pride Month is the gift that keeps on giving. Not content with intimidating retail workers at Target, boycotting Bud Light, and censuring professional sports teams for taking modest steps toward embracing the LGBTQ+ community, conservative culture warriors have put the Pentagon’s DEI initiatives in the crosshairs.
So much for supporting the troops. Or upholding the rule of law for that matter. Let alone abiding by the Pentagon’s own policies.
Indeed, according to the Military Times “a decade after the services first allowed gay and lesbian troops to serve openly, a report from the Joint Staff found that concerns about combat effectiveness and unit cohesion were basically unfounded.” Nevertheless, conservatives are tearing into the Defense Department’s recruitment efforts.
As this year’s Pride Month festivities wind down, it’s worth considering how right wing extremists and their hate-filled allies are targeting military personnel with their “anti-woke” demagoguery.
Much Ado About Drag Shows
Fresh from its full-frontal assault on Bud Light’s partnership with trans Tik Tok star Dylan Mulvaney, the conservative outrage machine set its sights on bigger game: the US military.
Headlined “US Navy Used Drag Queen Influencer To Attract A ‘Wide Range’ Of New Troops As Recruitment Plummets,” the Daily Caller called out the Navy for inviting Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley “to become the first ‘Navy Digital Ambassador’” – a recruitment program “designed to explore the digital environment to reach a wide range of potential candidates.”
Appearing in drag under his Trump-tryst-inspired stage name, Harpy Daniels, Kelley was, according to Gateway Pundit, “the first of five Navy Digital Ambassadors involved with an influencer pilot program.” Kelley later defended his work for the Navy’s recruitment effort on Instagram. “This experience has brought me so much strength, courage and ambition to continue being an advocate and representation of queer sailors.” Nonetheless, the pilot program has been shuttered, due in large measure to conservative backlash.
But that’s not stopping congressional Republicans from stepping up their campaign against what American Thinker glibly refers to as “Biden’s wokester Pentagon.” Earlier this month, right wing media celebrated House Republicans for drawing a line in the sand when it comes to drag shows on military bases.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) took credit when the Pentagon abruptly canceled a June 1 drag show at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Echoing Gaetz’s self-aggrandizing, Townhall’s headline tells readers all they need to know about conservative priorities when they called the DOD’s decision a “Huge Victory.”
Days later, in an “exclusive” Daily Caller cheered as “Montana Republican Matt Rosendale introduced legislation … that prohibits the Department of Defense (DOD) from paying for, hosting or supporting adult cabaret performances.”
Not Getting Over It
Writing in an open letter to The Western Journal, retired US Army Colonel Michael A. Milton was apoplectic over “the Navy’s drag queen disaster.” Milton recites his military pedigree before laying in to “this democratic socialist administration” over the Digital Ambassador’s program. “Sir, the action of Navy recruiters promoting a petty officer dressed in a drag queen outfit … is demeaning to our nation’s women and girls and a national disgrace to the armed forces, our allies and the American people.”
That’s quite the laundry list of aggrieved parties. Conspicuous in its absence from Milton’s screed is any mention of the US military’s record on the murder and sexual assault of female service members. Without putting too fine a point on it, the military’s culture of impunity surrounding sexual violence is far more “demeaning” to women than any drag show.
But no matter, the pages of right wing media are full of self-professed “patriots” – and at least one presidential hopeful from Florida – who mock and disparage DEI initiatives designed, in part, to address the US military’s “recruitment crisis.” Aptly appearing in Hot Air, another veteran, Beege Welborn, unleashed this homophobic, anti-trans tirade “I’m About Over the Navy and Their Pride Obsession.”
What these conservative critics fail to realize is how reckless and irresponsible their antiquated notions of gender can be.
In a sobering interview with Politico, Shawn Skelly, the Pentagon’s highest ranking trans officer, offered “a message for Republicans accusing the Department of Defense of promoting diversity and inclusion in the armed forces at the expense of military readiness: their campaign is what’s hurting the military’s warfighting capabilities.”
Meanwhile in the Courts
With all the victory celebrations over the “woke mob” this Pride Month, you can forgive right wing media from downplaying an inconvenient truth: corporations and even military brass may fold under pressure, but the courts are siding with LGBTQ+ rights.
Two headlines, from Hot Air and The Blaze respectively, suggest that this month’s conservative culture war “victories” may be short-lived. Pegged to a recent court ruling out of Tennessee, the first puts it rather plainly: “First Drag Law Ruled Unconstitutional”; the second is sure to gnaw at the MAGA faithful: “Trump-Appointed Judge Rules Law Banning Drag Shows For Kids ‘Unconstitutionally Vague.’”
Whether or not this ruling is tested in the US Supreme Court, this much is clear: the fight for LGBTQ+ rights proceeds despite conservatives’ best efforts rewrite history.
Kevin Howley is a writer and educator whose work has appeared in “Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism,” “Social Movement Studies,” and “Interactions: Studies in Communication and Culture.” He is the author and editor of several books including “Media Interventions” and “Drones: Media Discourse and the Public Imagination.”
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Conservatives are tearing into the Defense Department’s recruitment efforts. As this year’s Pride Month festivities wind down, it’s worth considering how right wing extremists and their hate-filled allies are targeting military personnel with their “anti-woke” demagoguery. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
