Amid War, Naval Academy Seeks Another Gender and Sexuality Professor

In the Middle East, thousands of innocent civilians are losing their lives in the crossfire between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group. Since October 7, men, women, the elderly, children, and infants have become victims of war — and the fighting only continues. “This is very bad,” said Linda Robinson, a senior fellow for Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The risks for a wider war and for the region going back into full-scale war are very, very high.”

Women have been raped in the streets, babies are found decapitated, protests are breaking out globally, and the Naval Academy has decided to put their effort — not into lethal combat training — but gender and sexuality studies.

According to the Academy’s website, the school’s mission is to “develop Midshipmen morally, mentally and physically and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, honor and loyalty in order to graduate leaders who are dedicated to a career of naval service and … to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government.” Apparently, the Navy has interpreted that to mean hiring gender and sexuality “experts” and featuring drag queens in recruitment videos. And it’s not just the naval Academy.

The U.S. Military Academy, considered among the most “prestigious universities in the nation,” has also incorporated gender and sexuality into Army officer education. West Point and the Air Force Academy even offer a minor in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Additionally, Nellis Air Force Base has developed a track record of hosting drag shows, regardless of opposition.

National Review contacted the Naval Academy for clarification on the purpose of the new position and whether it “would prepare graduates to fight the nation’s war,” but officials did not respond. But in 2021, shortly after West Point added critical race theory to their curriculum, General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, denied that the armed forces were “going woke.” Rather, he stated it was a “complicated topic” he was “not going to address.”

However, Travis Weber, a Naval Academy graduate and vice president for Policy and Government Affairs at Family Research Council, did address it with The Washington Stand. “This job posting — while only one data point — is an indicator of where our nation’s military is focused. And it’s not good,” he said.

He insisted the U.S. should be focused on “fires burning around the world [such as] the Russia-Ukraine war, an emerging war involving Israel in the Middle East, Azerbaijan displacing the Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh in the blink of an eye without much notice from anyone, and the looming threat of China invading Taiwan.” But instead, the U.S. is “pouring our nation’s increasingly thinning economic resources into a tenure track faculty position at one of our nation’s top military institutions that is focused on ‘Gender and Sexuality Studies.’”

Lt. General (Ret.) William G. Boykin, FRC’s executive vice president, also shared his concern with TWS, stating that “the hiring of a gender and sexuality studies Professor for the Naval Academy is another example of how unaware this administration is in training and preparing young men and women for war and to be victorious.” He emphasized the Navy seems “oblivious” to what midshipmen really need.

Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for Education Studies at FRC, agreed, adding that ironically, the more gender studies increase, “the less people [seem to] understand … men and women.” She continued, “Whether in the field of education or military service, basic understanding about how bodies work and human nature itself should be as uncomplicated as possible.”

Experts say that not only is this topic being overcomplicated by the LGBT narrative, it is also having devastating consequences on recruitment. According to The Heritage Foundation, “[L]eaders from the Army, Navy, and Air Force all dutifully reported that they expected to miss their annual recruiting goal this year by thousands.” Despite adding new benefits and bonuses, recruitment rates continue to worsen. Woke “actions are a major contributor to the low enlistment in all our military services,” Boykin said.

As military institutions prioritize gender and sexuality education and recruitment suffers, “China is taking advantage of our distracted world to deport hundreds of North Korean defectors back to North Korea — where they will almost certainly be sent to forced labor camps,” Weber emphasized. He further noted that the West’s influence is on decline, and the East is seeking to “take its place.”

What this means, Weber continued, is “an unstable, multipolar world order, in which violent flare-ups are more likely.” He concluded, “This is a world that needs American leadership, not American naval gazing. The diversion of resources into areas like this one faculty opening portrays a distracted America, not an America focused on dealing with the challenges of its day. We need an adjustment of our focus if we are going to effectively lead into the years ahead.”

As Boykin stated plainly: “It is time for the Navy and all other services to wake up and start providing good leadership.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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