Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee are preparing to request all Pentagon records on gender identity since President Joe Biden took office. The Republicans vowed to pursue the records when they take control of the house next month.
During a Tuesday hearing, Democrats who still control the House Armed Services Committee shelved a Republican-led resolution of inquiry for the Department of Defense to turn over all materials pertaining to gender identity from Jan. 21, 2021 onward. While Democrats delayed the resolution, Republicans vowed to pursue it once again when they have majority control of the House of Representatives after Jan. 3.
The Republican resolution specifically calls on the Pentagon to turn over any materials with the terms:
- Transgender.
- Gender identity.
- Gender transition.
- Gender reassignment.
- Gender affirming.
- Gender neutral.
- Gender dysphoria.
- Nonbinary (or non-binary).
- Gendered language.
- Safe space.
- Inclusive language.
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), speaking on behalf of the resolution, said, “Next year, the new majority will be conducting robust oversight of these issues and we will demand accountability from this administration.”
Rogers said, “Americans are growing increasingly concerned with the direction of the military in recent years.”
“DoD’s current political appointees are pushing questionable policies on our troops just to satisfy the ideological agenda of a minority of Americans,” Rogers continued. “They understand that using military orders is the most efficient way to usher in rapid, unprecedented social change that they seek, but it’s not the right thing to do. Our troops should not be the vanguard for the left’s social agenda.”
The plans to pursue these records come as Republican lawmakers have raised numerous concerns about the ideological direction of the military during the Biden administration. In a recent 18-page report, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) charged the military with “promoting and celebrating sex reassignment procedures, which can have months-long
recovery periods.” Rubio and Roy’s report also noted the Air Force Academy has featured instruction to avoid gendered language, including the words “mom” and “dad.”
The military struggled with recruiting last year. A recent poll found that the 62 percent of Americans view the military as too political and 50 percent felt that it was too “woke.”
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), who chairs the committee until the Republicans take the majority in the House in the next session of Congress, said the Republican-led records request is “the mother of all fishing expeditions.”
“This is not a simple request for one thing,” Smith added. “This will take an enormous amount of time towards no particular purpose.”
Smith said the Republican demands for materials on gender in the military will actually hurt recruiting.
“If you have a group of people dedicating their time to going out there and trashing the military for not doing their job and not being capable, it does make it more likely that people won’t want to join,” Smith said.
