Our Woke Military: Trans Rights over Religious Liberty

The military is waging a two-front war on its most conservative members.

On one front is the foolish and otherwise unlawful implementation and execution of the armed services’ COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Religious accommodation requests to the vaccines have been categorically denied by the military branches. As of February of this year, 25,000 service members have requested the military accommodate their request to forego vaccination in light of their sincerely-held religious beliefs. Less than 10 had been approved, with zero approvals in the Army and Navy.

According to one court, “the Air Force's process to protect religious rights is both illusory and insincere. In short, it’s just ‘theater.’”¹ Another court found the military actively disfavoring religious exemptions: “the mandate treats those with secular exemptions more favorably than those seeking religious exemptions.”² In other words, the military is openly and proudly hostile to religious service members, forcing them under threat of punishment to choose the vaccines over their faith.

As to the mandate’s implementation generally, the military doesn’t recognize natural immunity. We all know that natural immunity is robust and long-lasting. Certainly more so than that of the vaccines. The DOD, led by Secretary Austin, chooses to ignore this data in favor mandatory vaccination for all.

Then there is the unlawful required administration of vaccines authorized under an emergency use authorization (EUA), since the officially “licensed” vaccines remain unavailable. What makes that unlawful? The President must authorize the administration of EUA vaccines to the military – and he hasn’t.

The other front, related to the first, involves the culture generally. Back in 2017, there were reports that Army training allowed for male soldiers identifying as women to wash in female showers. Units were to adjust to transgender identity. This issue reappeared this week, with reporting from The Washington Free Beacon providing source documents of the Army’s transgender service policy which states:

“Gender transition in the Army begins when a Soldier receives a diagnosis from a military medical provider indicating that gender transition is medically necessary.”

This comes after the military’s celebration of Pride Month this past June, and West Point cadets being taught Critical Race Theory – including this slide on “whiteness.”

In the face of this evidence, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin maintains the DOD is “apolitical.” Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Mark Milley declares the U.S. military is an “apolitical institution.”

Yet it’s easy to see which groups the current regime favors. They’re not being subtle about it. Trans soldiers are given wide latitude to exercise their gender identity. The pious are discharged. Sexual identity is celebrated. White skin color is condemned as original sin. (Maybe I should say both sides are pious. They just worship different Gods/gods.)

In the midst of all this, or more accurately – because of all this – “every branch of the U.S. military is struggling to meet its fiscal year 2022 recruiting goals.” According to data obtained by NBC News, there is “both a record low percentage of young Americans eligible to serve and an even tinier fraction willing to consider it.”

Why the drop? Rod Dreher, discussing Jeff Groom’s article in The Spectator, references the point of view of the recruited, saying:

“At some point, you’ve got to realize that it’s a scam, that you are being asked to risk your life to fight for an imperial order that thinks your law-abiding, church-going, palefaced right-wing self is the problem with America.”

We observe that what was once imperialism is now imperialism with progressivism on top. It has the same appetite for power and dominance – and it will continue to satisfy that appetite through deceit – but at least it will do so in a progressive manner. Cue the memes.

Not that we should be surprised by this. The institutional disregard of the lives of the military service members has been an undisputed fact for years. The US government prioritized the war effort and corporate profits when it covered-up the deadly effects of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. In the 1980s, the CDC continued the cover-up, lying about military records and the link between birth defects and Agent Orange.

In the more recent past, we lost approximately 2,450 American service members and spent over $2 trillion in Afghanistan. Lies from military leadership kept America in that war, undoubtedly leading to the death of thousands of Americans and untold amounts of money. Those promises from U.S. generals about progress? The data points were “altered” to paint a picture of success that wasn’t true. How were they not complicit in the deaths of American troops?

I ask that question to reframe the issue. Mandates and woke politics are the current dilemma. But it’s all manifested from rot that has been persistent deep in the military’s bones. At least we’re now seeing it for what it is.

Brief update for members below: