Senate Republicans have introduced a bill to ban taxpayer-funded drag queen shows on military bases, calling them a "gross misuse of taxpayer funds."
The bill, sponsored by Senator Steve Daines of Montana, prohibits using Department of Defense funds and facilities to host, advertise, or support an adult cabaret performance. The bill defines such performances 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. This must be stopped immediately," Daines said in a statement.
Daines is concerned that the military's embrace of drag queens and other woke ideologies is crippling its ongoing recruitment struggles. To attract the younger generation, the Navy promoted a "nonbinary" drag queen to be its "digital ambassador," the Washington Free Beacon reported last week. In FY 2022, the Army fell 25 percentor 15,000 active-duty soldiersshort of its recruiting goal, and the Navy is expected to lose 8,000 short of its recruitment goal in FY 2023.
"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," Daines wrote in a Tuesday letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
When asked in a March House Armed Services Committee hearing about drag shows on military bases, Austin repeatedly insisted that "drag shows are not something that the Department of Defense supports or funds."
During the hearing, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida pressed Austin on the issue, citing several news reports of drag shows on U.S. bases in Nevada, Montana, and Germany. Another top military official admitted to Gaetz that the Army's policy of forcing women to shower with men who identify as women harm recruiting efforts.
Republican senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Ted Budd of North Carolina, and Marco Rubio of Florida cosponsored the bill.
"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 said.
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