We recently covered the Navy’s use of drag queens as “digital ambassadors” to help with the service’s dismal recruiting numbers:
One of the images from Navy “digital ambassador” Harpy Daniels’ Instagram page in our most recent post, showing Harpy in thong underwear and nothing else, has apparently been taken down. So, just in case you’d forgotten, here is a different image we found from Harpy Daniels’, who is on active duty in the Navy and whose real name is Joshua Kelley, Instagram page:
Please keep in mind this person in on active duty in your (and my) United States Navy.
Also, as we noted in our most recent post, not only has Kelley been posting wildly inappropriate, openly accessible content on social media, he also, on Twitter, (i) accused Republicans of engaging in a “witch hunt” for questioning the Navy’s use of drag queens for recruiting, (ii) insulted Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw, and (iii) accused a person questioning the Navy’s use of drag queen recruiters as “homophobic.”
Bringing to mind the old adage that when you’ve dug yourself a hole, it’s best to stop digging, some of “Harpy’s” recent tweets include this one praising Charlize Theron for saying that she would “fu*k anybody up” who comes for transgender people:
And this one accusing Fox News of “hate” for covering his story and lamenting that more “larger names” hadn’t come to his defense:
And Harpy retweeted this one calling a Target employee who supports Satanism a hero:
Anyway, it now turns out that the tide may be turning (no pun intended) at DOD, with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin banning on-base drag shows DOD-wide, as Military.com reports: Defense Secretary Orders No Drag Shows on Military Bases After Political Furor
A Defense Department-wide prohibition on drag shows on military bases has resulted in the cancellation of at least two events that were planned for Pride Month and previously approved by base officials, two defense officials confirmed to Military.com.Shows at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada and Ramstein Air Base in Germany scheduled for this month were canceled, participants and defense officials confirmed. The two officials told Military.com the cancellations were part of a direction from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that drag shows, which have become a target of the political right, not be hosted on bases.
This all happened after Matt Gaetz, Republican Congressman for Florida, jacked Austin up at a hearing in March:
During a March hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, Gaetz pressed Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley about drag shows hosted on military bases. Austin repeatedly told Gaetz that such events, which are typically sponsored by community groups, are “not something that the department supports or funds.”
Gaetz also sent a letter, available here, to Austin about the Nellis and Rammstein drag shows, and others at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, in Virginia, where Harpy Daniels had performed, and Malmstrom Air Force Base, in Montana. The letter “enclosed supplementary documents that further highlight[ed] the DoD’s pervasive and persistent use of taxpayer dollars for drag events,” including one showing Daniels performing a drag show aboard the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) while the carrier was forward-deployed. The letter called the upcoming June 1, 2023 Nellis drag show an “outright attack on children,” and promised that the “House Armed Services Committee [would] conduct further oversight of this matter.”
The Nellis show, as mentioned, was cancelled:
“Per DoD Joint Ethics Regulation (JER), certain criteria must be met for persons or organizations acting in non-federal capacity to use DoD facilities and equipment,” Defense Department spokesperson Sabrina Singh said in a statement. “As Secretary Austin has said, the DoD will not host drag events at U.S. military installations or facilities. Hosting these types of events in federally funded facilities is inconsistent with regulations regarding the use of DoD resources.”An Air Force official told Military.com that base leaders have been told to relocate those shows or cancel them if they’re on the installation.”Consistent with Secretary Austin’s congressional testimony, the Air Force will not host drag events at its installations or facilities,” the official said. “Commanders have been directed to either cancel or relocate these events to an off-base location.”
Representative Gaetz celebrated:
Rolling Stone did not celebrate, although their response, for them, was quite muted:
IT’S BEEN LITTLE more than a decade since the Department of Defense officially repealed “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” allowing LGBTQ service members to be open about their identities, families, and lives. Today, progress is being threatened by a vitriolic anti-LGBTQ backlash from the right — and the Pentagon is starting to cave.
And, showing that they never got the message on “chain of command,” Rolling Stone lamented that “Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley ordered Nevada’s Nellis Air Force Base to cancel a drag show in celebration of Pride Month — despite the event already having been approved by the Air Force.”
Politico accused the DOD of “crack[ing] down on drag shows at military bases,” and ABC News lamented that “[t]he previously approved show was scheduled for the first day of Pride Month.” The Portland Press Herald, from Maine, focused on “the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for LGBTQ+ civil rights, [and which] directly criticized Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin”:
“Before today, Secretary Austin has been unwavering in his support for LGBTQ+ Americans who proudly serve in uniform,” the group said in a statement. “However, instead of truly standing up for our community on the first day of Pride, he chose to side with the politics of fear and discrimination peddled by extreme members of Congress.”
But by and large, these news organizations simply reported the facts, as a perusal of the above articles reveals.
Even those who took to Twitter to express their disapproval were more disappointed than outraged:
About as bad as it got was this tweet:
Maybe, just maybe we are seeing the realization by all involved that drag shows, especially those for children, are not appropriate in a military setting. I can’t believe I even have to write that in 2023, but maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel after all.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY