Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Outraged Response to Navy’s Drag Queen Program

Consultant Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, on Saturday dominated out supporting any Division of Protection (DOD) initiatives that contain utilizing drag performances to draw new recruits.

The U.S. Navy launched a pilot program that ran from final October to March through which it used a drag queen as a “digital ambassador” to succeed in out to youthful individuals who is perhaps considering becoming a member of the Navy. Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, who goes by the drag identify Harpy Daniels and identifies as non-binary, introduced on Instagram final November that that they had been invited to develop into a “digital ambassador” for the Navy as per this system, and has carried out in drag for sailors.

The U.S. Navy mentioned in March that it was going through a “difficult recruiting surroundings” and that it did not meet its recruitment targets in fiscal yr 2022 for reserve personnel and lively obligation officers, in accordance with the Navy Occasions.

Nevertheless, what appears to be an LGBTQ+ inclusion effort on the Navy’s behalf acquired backlash at a time through which transgender rights are being closely focused in ways in which vary from proposing anti-transgender laws in Republican-led states to boycotting beer model Bud Gentle for utilizing transgender influencer and activist Dylan Mulvaney to advertise its product. Republicans say the legal guidelines are crucial to guard kids, however critics argue they create a hostile surroundings and infringe on LGBTQ+ rights.

“I’ll NOT vote to fund ANY Trans packages of ANY type particularly of medical nature in our NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act]. ZERO. Our army has just one goal, the protection of our nation. Our army wants to coach males for warfare, not flip males into faux girls,” Greene tweeted on Saturday. The NDAA features a sequence of federal legal guidelines that specify the DOD’s annual finances.

Greene was reacting to a Thursday Pentagon press briefing the place a reporter requested Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh about whether or not different branches of the U.S. army will launch the “digital ambassador” program. Singh responded that it was a pilot outreach effort and never a recruiting effort, and mentioned that the “Navy is evaluating this system and the way it [will] exist sooner or later.”

Different criticism got here from Robby Starbuck, a music producer who ran in a Republican congressional main in 2022, who described this system as “insane,” including that the “army has an enormous recruiting/retention disaster as a result of they went woke. How did they attempt to repair it? By going extra woke.”

Consultant Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican, tweeted on Tuesday that “Biden DoD’s [Department of Defense] recruitment is nearly as good as Bud Gentle’s advertising,” referring to the backlash the beer model acquired over partnering with Mulvaney.

A U.S. Navy spokesperson informed The Day by day Caller on Monday that the initiative was an try and “discover the digital surroundings to succeed in a variety of potential candidates.” 5 lively personnel had been reportedly chosen, together with Kelley, they usually weren’t compensated for his or her work.

Whereas Kelley turned a digital ambassador for the Navy final yr, their drag act has been publicized since 2018. “I’ve many LGBT mates right here, and in the event you can stand at consideration correctly and converse with correct etiquette, that is what it comes right down to within the Navy,” they informed NBC Information on the time. “I’ve not as soon as had a nasty expertise as a homosexual man within the army.”

Kelley joined the Navy in 2016 and mentioned of their November Instagram publish that their expertise as a sailor has “been a blessing.”

Newsweek reached out by electronic mail to Greene’s spokesperson for remark.