In a strong rebuke Thursday to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the president of the nation’s prominent Catholic civil rights organization charged that the U.S. Navy is continuing to use “the policies of the far-left, the woke brand of politics,” in its recent drag queen digital campaign supposedly intended as a recruitment strategy.
Bill Donohue of the Catholic League wrote to General Mark Milley, condemning the scandal of the Navy’s acknowledgment the service branch has recruited Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, a sailor who “misidentifies,” as Donohue states, as “non-binary,” and who performs as a drag queen, to serve as a “digital ambassador” in a pilot program geared toward attracting young recruits.
Navy’s drag queen star draws fire https://t.co/ISN1V6QFkk
— Catholic League (@CatholicLeague) May 4, 2023
The program was “designed to explore the digital environment to reach a wide range of potential candidates,” a Navy spokesperson told Fox News, during a time that is the service branch’s “most challenging recruiting environment it has faced since the start of the all-volunteer force.”
“That person is either stupid of lying,” Donohue asserted in his letter to Milley, providing his own theory of the reason for the drag queen campaign:
We all know why the Army, Navy and Air Force missed their recruitment goals by the thousands this year; the Marines held steady. It’s because these branches have adopted the policies of the far-left, the woke brand of politics. As such, they have gone off the rails, alienating millions of Americans. If someone sought to deliberately sabotage the armed forces, he could not do a better job.
“With regard to the Navy, what normal man or woman would want to join an organization that hires the mentally challenged, or worse, to recruit new members?” Donohue asked. “As I indicated, this is not an accident.”
Americans, the Catholic leader avowed, “are being played, plain and simple.”
Observing to Milley that he himself is an Air Force veteran, and that “Catholics are overrepresented among those in uniform,” Donohue declared his “outrage” that “this morally debased campaign” has been implemented.
“Trying to sexually engineer our troops is bad enough, but to express shock that recruitment levels are down – when drag queens are used as model recruiters – is insulting and offensive,” Donohue stated.
The Navy’s drag queen campaign has drawn fire as well from a decorated Navy SEAL veteran – one who participated in the mission that killed Osama bin Laden.
Alright. The U.S. Navy is now using an enlisted sailor Drag Queen as a recruiter. I’m done. China is going to destroy us. YOU GOT THIS NAVY. I can’t believe I fought for this bullshit.
— Robert J. O'Neill (@mchooyah) May 3, 2023
“The U.S. Navy is now using an enlisted sailor Drag Queen as a recruiter,” tweeted Former Navy SEAL Team Six Member Robert J. O’Neill, who also hosts the podcast THE OPERATOR. “I’m done. China is going to destroy us. YOU GOT THIS NAVY. I can’t believe I fought for this bulls**t.”
Kelley, who performs under the name Harpy Daniels, announced in a social media post in November that he would serve as one of the Navy’s first “digital ambassadors.”
https://www.instagram.com/reel/ClCNuWJjy-o/?img_index=1
“From joining to 2016 and being able to share my drag experience on my off time with my fellow sailors has been a blessing,” he posted on Instagram. “This experience has brought me so much strength, courage and ambition to continue being an advocate and representation of queer sailors!”
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Susan Berry, PhD is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Bill Donohue” by Catholic League.
