Since Joe Biden’s first day as president, the U.S. military has spent 539,771 hours on the Left’s absurd priorities of “diversity and inclusion.” The Air Force was on the verge of making it 539,772 — until Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) stepped in. Apparently, as an encore to the branch’s “morale-boosting” drag show in Nevada last year, Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany had something even more controversial planned: a drag queen story hour for kids.
The event, which was originally scheduled for June 2, is nothing new for Ramstein. In 2021, despite the uproar over controversial readings like this one taking place at local libraries, the base went ahead with its plans. Fortunately, this time around, the event’s organizers made the mistake of promoting the ad on social media, where it caught the attention of astonished leaders like Rubio. Horrified that a military base would spend its time and resources indoctrinating children, the Florida senator fired off a letter to the secretary of the Air Force, Frank Kendall.
“U.S. military installations exist to serve the needs of the warfighter for training, logistics, storage, testing, and deployment,” Rubio wrote. “Simultaneously, the installation must also support the needs of servicemembers and their families, including creating a safe, healthy environment for parents raising children … In light of this, it is completely insane for Ramstein AFB to use on-installation resources for rituals like ‘Drag Queen Story Time.’ These inappropriate events are extremely divisive at home for good reason; in all cases, they place young children in close proximity with adults who are intentionally and explicitly sexualized.”
Pointing to an author highlighted at last year’s event, Rubio shook his head that anyone — let alone military officials — would consider it appropriate to expose children to the “magic of drag” — and, worse, encourage them to “get a little practice shaking their hips…” “As I hope you can agree,” the senator argued to Kendall, “decisions over children and their bodies should be left to moms and dads serving our nation, not mediated through publicly funded propaganda on U.S. Air Force bases. The last thing parents serving their nation overseas should be worried about, particularly in a theater with heightened geopolitical tensions, is whether their children are being exposed to sexually charged content simply because they visited their local library. I urge you to cancel this event…”
To its credit, the Air Force responded — and in less than 24 hours, the story hour was scrubbed from the base’s social media accounts. According to Ramstein officials, the event’s organizers had moved ahead with promotion before getting the official green light. “An advertisement was posted to the base library social media page before the event had completed Ramstein’s established processes for special observance coordination and approval,” a spokesperson for the 86th Airlift Wing told The Post Millennial. “The advertisement has been removed and the event will not take place.”
For the 60,000 service members and civilians posted at Ramstein, the announcement should come as a huge relief. The circus of LGBT activism has no place in America’s proud warfighting ethic. As Family Research Council President Tony Perkins asked, “When was the last time you read a headline about the military that actually had to do with national defense?” Instead, we’re talking about global warming, critical race theory, and taxpayer-funded gender reassignments. Now incredibly, the U.S. Army is even considering “compassionate reassignments” for soldiers triggered by conservative state laws on abortion, gender, and parents’ rights.
Meanwhile, back in China, North Korea, and Iran, our enemies must be thrilled to know that America’s sophisticated military training is on hold to accommodate the White House’s pet social causes. “We face real threats across the world,” 12 senators complained to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Mark Milley, “yet the Biden administration is more focused on promoting its leftist social agenda in the military instead of countering [dangerous regimes] or creating an effective counterterrorism plan.”
And the sad thing about it, FRC’s Lt. General (Ret.) Jerry Boykin has said, is that these distractions only drive a deeper “wedge between members of the military. And there’s nothing more important on the battlefield — not weapons, not the technology — [than] the cohesion and the morale of those men and women who are out there fighting. They make the difference. That’s how you win on the battlefield.”
The previous administration understood that. But unfortunately for our troops — and for America — the only war this president seems to care about fighting is the culture’s.
Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.
