Last month, U.S. military bases in Alaska and across the country proactively celebrated lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer sexualities through social media posts, ‘Pride’ runs, LGBTQ picnics and continuing education workshops.
It turns out that the armed forces were ordered to expend taxpayer funds in the promotion of controversial sexual ideologies.
Last month, State Senator Shelley Hughes (R-Palmer) tried to get to the bottom of this by sending an email to Major Gen. Torrence Saxe, commander of the Alaska National Guard. Hughes wanted to know why the Alaska Air National Guard was pushing Pride Month on its Facebook page.
“You may be unaware of certain recent posts on Alaska Air National Guard social media pages, but I’ve received a number of questions from constituents and other Mat-Su residents the last couple of weeks about these posts,” Hughes wrote on June 14. “Curious as to why an entity under the Alaska Department of Military and Veterans Affairs made these posts expressing support for Pride Month using taxpayer dollars (state staff, resources, and time)?”
Hughes asked whether the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs was required to promote Pride Month.
Two days later, she received a response from Saxe’s special assistant, Angela Laflamme.
“Major General Saxe asked me to respond to your questions from June 14,” Laflamme wrote, before proceeding to explain that federally funded National Guard units are directed through regulation and instruction to participate in 11 officially designated annual observances. These include Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday, National African American/Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day & Days of Remembrance, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Pride Month, Juneteenth, Women’s Equality Day, National Hispanic Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and National American Indian Heritage Month.
Only Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Juneteenth are recognized as federal holidays.
Hughes sent a follow up question the same day.
“Just so I don’t make an assumption I shouldn’t, does ‘directed to participate’ essentially mean that participation is a requirement in order to receive federal funding?” Hughes asked. “Secondly, does the directive spell out specifically how to participate, e.g., that social media posts about the annual observances are to be made (and is content for those posts you’re to use provided by the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute at DOD)?”
On June 27, Laflamme responded.
“In general, federally appropriated funding is attached to regulatory compliance,” she wrote. “National Guard Regulation 600-21, Chapter 4 and Air Force Instruction 36-2710, Chapter 11 outline the compliance requirements for observances, as part of the larger DoD equal opportunity program. They describe a number of ways units can participate and acknowledge the designated observances.”
She added that the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute “provides a variety of information, graphics and photos DoD units may use during designated observances.”
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Hughes wrote a final email on June 29.
“Thank you for the follow-up, Angela,” she replied. “I understand this is coming down from the federal administration and not your doing or Major General Saxes’ doing, but I must say: it is fundamentally wrong for federal funds to be tied to regulatory compliance which requires promoting a particular political position, and it is wrong for the federal government to use our tax dollars to create and distribute information, graphics, and photos for the National Guard in the 50 states to use to promote a particular political position.”
Apart from the Alaska Air National Guard’s Pride Month promotion, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson held a “Pride Lunch ‘n Learn” on June 1 to “break down the ABCs of LGBTQ+ and … help us understand Gender Identity verses Sexual Orientation.” Soldiers who attended the workshop received one continuing education unit.
Eielson Air Force Base went a bit further with its fitness center hosting a “Pride Run 5K” on June 17. The event encouraged soldiers to celebrate Pride Month by running in rainbow colors to “express yourself, show solidarity and celebrate love.”
These events are part of an increasing effort on behalf of the U.S. Military to celebrate LGBTQ sexuality under directives from Commander-in-Chief Joe Biden.
As part of the month-long observations, the U.S. Air Force circulated a graphic showing a serviceman standing at attention while saluting a homosexual-bisexual-transgender-queer flag.
Additionally, the Pentagon chose to highlight extreme homosexual activist, Harvey Milk, as the focal point of this year’s pride events. Molested by homosexual predators when he was a teen, Milk went on to engage in a sexual relationship with a 16- or 17-year-old boy when he was in his 30s.
Military bases used their social media platforms to celebrate Milk as a national hero this year.
