On Tuesday, Republicans in the U.S. Senate introduced a bill that would ban drag queen performances on American military bases.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, the bill was introduced by Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.), and forbids the Department of Defense from using public funds to “host, advertise, or otherwise support an adult cabaret performance,” which is further defined by the bill as “a performance that features topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dances, strippers, or male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to prurient interest.”
“Allowing the DoD to become a branch of [the] far-left helping to promote their radical gender ideology by hosting and promoting drag queen performances is a threat to our national security and gross misuse of taxpayer funds,” said Senator Daines in a statement. “This must be stopped immediately.”
The most recent backlash against far-left indoctrination in the military came from the U.S. Navy’s decision to hire a “drag queen” for recruiting purposes, announcing that Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, a man who identifies as “nonbinary,” would become the Navy’s new “digital ambassador” in an attempt to recruit younger people into the Navy.
The widely-panned decision by the Navy comes amidst historic drops in recruitment across all branches, with the Army falling 25 percent short of its recruiting goal in Fiscal Year 2022, coming out to roughly 15,000 less active-duty soldiers than the minimum. The Navy is expected to miss its Fiscal Year 2023 goal by about 8,000 sailors.
“When it comes to the crisis of military recruitment, it is clear that activities like ‘Drag Story Time’ only weaken cohesion and morale and further degrade the recruitment and retention of men and women serving our country in uniform,” said Daines in a letter he wrote on Tuesday letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. “Our military’s mission is clear: to provide the military forces needed to deter and win wars and to protect the security of our country and our allies.”
Daines’ bill is cosponsored by Senators Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).