The US military became the latest organization to fold under right-wing backlash to Pride Month on Wednesday, when Pentagon brass forced the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada to cancel a drag show it had scheduled for Thursday, according to NBC News. The decision underscores the new heights that anti-LGBTQ outrage has reached this year: Nellis held drag performances for Pride in 2022 and 2021 without incident.
While the Defense Department did not intervene in years past, Sabrina Singh, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, released a statement Wednesday saying that on-base drag shows were inappropriate. “As [Defense] Secretary [Lloyd] Austin has said, the DOD will not host drag events at US military installations or facilities,” said Singh, who did not mention whether conservative pressure campaigns factored into the Pentagon’s decision. “Hosting these types of events in federally funded facilities is not a suitable use of DOD resources.” Another official told CNN that this policy applies to all drag events being held on military property, with an Air Force official adding that “commanders have been directed to either cancel or relocate these events to an off-base location.”
Pentagon leadership’s adoption of this stance comes after Republicans grilled Austin and Joint Chiefs chairman Mark Milley in March over on-base drag events. During a House Armed Services Committee hearing, Austin told Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, that “drag shows are not something the Defense Department supports or funds,” while Milley promised to look into military drag events because “those things shouldn’t be happening.” The Nellis event was also one of six drag shows mentioned by Gaetz in a May 23 letter to Austin and Milley that called for an end to “the DoD’s pervasive and persistent use of taxpayer dollars for drag events.” Meanwhile, Senator Steve Daines, a Montana Republican, introduced legislation last month “to prohibit the funding of ‘adult cabaret performances’ on military bases.”
Lately, conservatives have made drag queens—and their place within the armed forces—a pressing issue for the Department of Defense. The Navy was clobbered in the right-wing press last month for selecting an active-duty drag queen, Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, as one of its digital ambassadors in an effort to boost recruitment. And when lawmakers caught wind of Kelley’s appointment, 14 Republican senators, including Ted Cruz, fired off an angry missive to the Navy’s secretary, asking whether the branch officially endorsed drag performances.
Like the Pentagon, high-profile fixtures in corporate America have also capitulated to the Republican furor of late. Target announced last week that it would be dropping certain items from its stores—reportedly including merchandise from a trans designer—following conservative threats over its Pride collection and displays. Anheuser-Busch InBev issued a quasi-apology in April to those angered by a marketing deal it had with a transgender influencer. And the LA Dodgers buckled under the same pressure, dropping their plan to celebrate a storied LGBTQ advocacy group at their upcoming Pride Night. However, the team ultimately changed course and re-invited the drag group, further infuriating conservatives.
Caleb Ecarma
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