The White House mentioned on Monday it wasn’t behind a Defense Department choice to cancel drag occasions at US navy bases.
Late final week, DoD introduced that drag occasions, which have been carried out at US navy installations for many years, wouldn’t proceed as a result of they aren’t a “suitable use” of navy assets.
The Pentagon mentioned in a press release that “certain criteria must be met for persons or organizations acting in nonfederal capacity.”
Biden administration press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned on Monday at a press convention that the White House helps LGBTQ+ members of the navy.
“The Biden-Harris administration will celebrate LGBTQI plus service members’ contributions with pride across federal agencies, including at the Department of Defense,” she mentioned.
The Pentagon choice has already led to the cancellation of at the least one deliberate drag present, a family-friendly occasion at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada that includes performer Coco Montrese, a former contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race. The base has hosted drag occasions in 2021 and 2022, deliberate by the power’s Pride committee.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, mentioned on Monday on CNN canceling the occasions was the “absolute right thing to do” and mentioned drag occasions “were never part of DOD policy to begin with and they’re certainly not funded by federal funds.”
Capitol Hill Republicans questioned Mr Milley and different navy leaders in March at a House Armed Services Committee listening to in March, and have since raised inquiries about potential funds going to such occasions.
US navy members have carried out in drag at bases since at the least World War I, together with in the course of the famed USO exhibits of WWII, in response to the New York Times
“Ensuring our ranks reflect the diversity of the American people is essential to morale and cohesion,” the Modern Military Association of America, a nonprofit representing LGBTQ+ servicemembers, informed the paper. “It affects recruiting and retention of service members who do not feel welcome due to their sexual and gender identities.”
Across the nation, Republican-led legislatures have handed legal guidelines focusing on drag exhibits, and drag occasions have been the topic of armed threats, a part of a wider wave of GOP assaults on LGBTQ+ folks.
Source: www.unbiased.co.uk