An 18-year-old woman in the South Dakota National Guard was required to shower with biological men during basic training, but was afraid to complain about the situation, Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said Tuesday at a Senate hearing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The hearing held by the Senate Armed Services Committee was to consider President Joe Biden\u2019s nomination of Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replacing Army Gen. Mark Milley, who is retiring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although much of the hearing focused on military readiness, as Brown would be taking the top military position in the United States, several senators asked about DEI\u2014diversity, equity, and inclusion policies\u2014in the Defense Department.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the service has struggled to meet recruiting numbers, there has been an increased emphasis on immutable characteristics like race and sex, and the department has increasingly focused on new policy and plans in areas like equity, extremism, gender ideology, abortion, and sex change operations,\u201d Rounds said during Brown\u2019s confirmation hearing. \u201cThere is even growing bureaucracy that focuses on these specific issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
DEI and gender ideology in the military have been among the topics raised in the Senate confirmation hearing today of Gen. Charles Q. Brown to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs. pic.twitter.com\/xtSK4PBbhg<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Fred Lucas (@FredLucasWH) July 11, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
Rounds said the situation of an 18-year-old \u201cgirl\u201d in the South Dakota National Guard came to his attention only recently.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Recounting her story, the South Dakota Republican said \u201cshe was sleeping in open bays and showering with biological males who had not had gender reassignment surgery, but were documented as females because they had begun the drug therapy process.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis 18-year-old girl was uncomfortable with her situation, but had limited options on how to deal with it. If she raised her hand, she feared he would be targeted for retaliation,\u201d Rounds said, noting that she also worried that making a complaint also might delay the start of her freshman year of college.<\/p>\n
Rounds continued:<\/p>\n
\n
She could request to leave the Guard for religious purposes and not be able to pursue her dream of serving our country. Gen. Brown, this is a challenging situation. If confirmed as the chairman, how do you propose to handle situations like this, which I truly believe may be impacting recruitment and morale by placing a disproportionate interest on gender-related ideology?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Brown responded by saying he would \u201ctake a look\u201d at policies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSenator, one of the things I\u2019ve thought about throughout my career [is that] as you are being inclusive, you also don\u2019t want to make other individuals uncomfortable,\u201d Brown told Rounds. \u201cSo, as we look at our policy and approaches and get feedback like this, we have to take a look and see if we can improve on how we approach situations like this. As I\u2019ve done as service chief, as I\u2019ve done throughout my career, if confirmed, I will continue to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown, who joined the Air Force in 1984, has piloted a F-16 and trained others to fly the F-16 Fighting Falcon. He has more than 3,000 flying hours, including 130 combat hours, according to the Air Force<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brown currently is chief of staff for the Air Force, the top spot, to which President Donald Trump appointed him in 2020. He has been a controversial nominee for Biden based on his comments about race, and for signing on to a memo last August<\/a> from senior Air Force and Space Force leadership calling for a more diverse set of officers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition to Brown, the memo was signed by Space Force Gen. John W. Raymond, chief of space operations; Secretary of the Air Force Gen. Frank Kendall; and Under Secretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Monday, the day before Brown\u2019s confirmation hearing, the American Accountability Foundation, a government watchdog group, filed a complaint<\/a> with the Office of Air Force Inspector General, citing past comments suggesting that, as the top official in the Air Force, Brown hired and promoted based on racial considerations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Examples in the complaint include a 2021 People magazine interview that quotes Brown as saying that \u201cwe\u2019ve got to closely manage our diverse populations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0An article in The Washington Post, also from 2021, quotes Brown as saying, \u201cThe other thing that we have to do is ensure that we have diversity on the [military advisory] boards, but also diversity on the candidate list.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The complaint to the Pentagon\u2019s inspector general also quotes an interview with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in November 2020, when Brown flatly said, \u201cI hire for diversity.\u201d He also said: \u201cI purposely build my office, my front office, and my team with diverse\u201d backgrounds.<\/p>\n
Also Monday, leaders of conservative organizations, along with more than a dozen retired military leaders, signed a letter to senators asking that senators explore Brown\u2019s focus on DEI.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cControversies about divisive critical race theory (CRT) programs, which pit racial groups against each other, plus demographic diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) quotas that prolong racial discrimination and weaken meritocracy in the military, are demoralizing the troops,\u201d the letter says<\/a>. \u201cAt the same time, the armed forces are wasting time and resources on expensive climate change projects and alienating traditional families by indulging extreme demands from LGBT activists trying to extend their leftist agendas to children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the letter from conservative leaders and retired brass doesn\u2019t outright oppose Brown\u2019s nomination to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it makes their support conditional.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope that members of the Senate will do what they can to ensure that the best military leaders available will have all the support they need to defend America in an increasingly dangerous world,\u201d the letter to senators says. \u201cWe also hope that Gen. Brown will commit to reducing or eliminating problematic personnel issues that affect readiness and morale, including those referenced above. If not, senators should vote against this nomination.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, praised DEI policies in the military.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor almost four decades now, you have built inclusive, diverse, and ready teams in the Air Force, and I assume you will support such teams throughout the DOD,\u201d Hirono told Brown early in the hearing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou gave me an example of how important DEI programs\u2014as we refer to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs\u2014are in the military. Could you share with this committee what you shared with me yesterday?\u201d she continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brown defined this view as providing a fair opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think about for my own career and all of our members, all they want is a fair opportunity to perform. By providing that fair opportunity, they do not want to be advantaged or disadvantaged, or discounted based on their background,\u201d Brown told Hirono. \u201cThey want to have the opportunity, but they\u2019ve got to be qualified. I will tell you from my own career, when I came in, I didn\u2019t want to be the best African American F-16 pilot. I wanted to be the best F-16 pilot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., brought up concerns about an Aug. 9 memo from Brown and others about aspirational goals for recruiting diverse officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeneral, do we have too many white officers in the Air Force?\u201d Schmitt asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brown answered: \u201cSenator, what I look at is the quality of all the officers we have. We look at the aspects of everyone who is qualified, meets the qualification.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schmitt then said: \u201cIn your Aug. 9 memo, you signed onto that there should be a reduction, essentially, of about 9% of white officers. That\u2019s 5,400. This is the real impact of this desire of the [Biden] administration. I\u2019m saddened to see this, in this memo, this obsession with race-based politics being interjected into our military.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Missouri Republican went on to ask how the memo determined that the pool of Air Force officers should be 67.5% white; 13% black; 10% Asian; 1.5% American Indian or Native Alaskan; 1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; and 15% Hispanic or Latino.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSenator, that memo is based on application goals, not the actual officers,\u201d Brown answered. \u201cThose numbers are based on the demographics of the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
After some back and forth, the nominee said: \u201cSenator, what we looked at was the aspect of providing opportunity for anybody who wants to serve this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schmitt shot back: \u201cIf that is what was in this memo, I wouldn\u2019t be asking these questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the Biden administriton had injected abortion, COVID-19, and DEI politics into the military.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a cancer on the best military in the history of the world. Those men and women deserve better than this,\u201d Schmitt said, adding:<\/p>\n
\n
We ought to have the broadest pool of applicants and get the best and the brightest, and we ought to be recruiting in various areas to make sure we have the best and the brightest from every community, regardless of your race or your gender or ethnicity. But that\u2019s not what DEI is. DEI is an ideology based in cultural Marxism.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Later in the hearing, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard, pushed the point that the military doesn\u2019t officially have quotas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brown concurred.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not have quotas. That is against our policy for us to have quotas,\u201d the Air Force general said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email\u00a0letters@DailySignal.com<\/a>, and we\u2019ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular \u201cWe Hear You\u201d feature. Remember to include the url or headline of the article plus your name and town and\/or state.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n