Members of Congress Press Air Force Academy on Trans Colonel’s Partisan Speech at Recent Conference

By Kristina Wong | Breitbart News

Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), Navy veteran and chairman of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee and Anti-Woke Caucus, and House Republican Conference chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) are demanding that Air Force leaders explain why a transgender colonel was engaging in left-wing activism at a recent Air Force Academy conference, Breitbart News has exclusively learned.

The transgender colonel in question, Air Force Lieutenant Col. Bree Fram, waded into partisan speech about the 2024 presidential election while being a featured speaker at the conference.

While wearing a rainbow patch, he said, “While I don’t have a crystal ball, I can look out and say, ‘Well, either next year things will be great or I will be fighting for my ability to continue serving.’”

Can anyone identify what this patch is?

Department of Defense policy states that “active duty personnel may not engage in partisan political activities and all military personnel should avoid the inference that their political activities imply or appear to imply” the department’s “endorsement of a political candidate, campaign, or cause.”

When a Daily Wire reporter asked the Air Force about Fram’s remarks, the Air Force gave him their full backing, saying the academy “was fortunate to have Col Bree Fram speak.”

“Her talk reinforced the value of diversity within our military and the importance of removing unnecessary barriers to service,” an Air Force spokesman said. “Col Fram has had a distinguished career in both the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Space Force and has used her experience and leadership to support our warfighting mission as well as inclusion within the Armed Forces.”

Reportedly, the Air Force spokesman also said it was the official position of the Air Force Academy that men can become women, stating, “Consistent with DoD and DAF policy, yes, the U.S. Air Force Academy recognizes that an individual’s internal or personal sense of gender may not match the individual’s sex assigned at birth.”

The spokesman reportedly added, “[I]ntentional misgendering of an individual may be considered harassment or discrimination under our Equal Opportunity policies.”

Banks told Breitbart News in an exclusive quote:

This kind of blatant partisanship is dividing servicemembers, eroding public trust in our military and making America weaker.

The left-wing activism started at the top with General Milley and now it’s trickling down to our service academies.

If we keep teaching future officers to see the military as a social experiment and telling them their duty is to advance progressive politics, we’ll have a national crisis when they take command in twenty or thirty years.

In their letter, Banks and Stefanik wrote to Air Force Academy Superintendent Lieutenant General Richard M. Clark and Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower & Reserve Affairs Alex Wagner expressing his concern about Fram’s remarks and partisan speech aimed at former President Donald Trump.

They wrote, “Lieutenant Colonel Fram’s remarks fit into a pattern of partisan statements at military academy conferences.”

They also added that the Air Force Academy did not provide an adequate response to a previous letter he and House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee chairman Mike Waltz (R-FL) sent on September 20, 2023, inquiring about an Air Force Academy cadet who had said at a West Point conference on diversity, equity, and inclusion:

“So, the United States Air Force Academy has a Diversity and Inclusion Minor that teaches classes on gender, race, and nationalism in the class, and these teachings have been incredibly controversial across the U.S. with an outright ban in Florida and the Superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy being questioned for it in Congress and the video going viral. Can cadets and service academies safeguard the teachings of these topics, or, if we get a particularly bad batch of Congressman, are these teachings, like, screwed?”

They noted that the cadet’s remarks could be a violation of Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which states that servicemembers cannot use contemptuous words against officials of any branch of the U.S. government or any state government.

They also informed them that in September 2023, Waltz uncovered Air Force Academy slides that instructed cadets to “use words that include all genders,” and substitute “Folks” or “Y’all” for “guys,” and use “partner” instead of “boyfriend” or “girlfriend,” and to use “parent or caregiver” instead of “mom and dad.”

They asked Clark and Wagner if Fram’s role as a co-leader of the Department of the Air Force LGBTQ+ Initiatives Team is a full-time job or a side job and what the purpose of the team is, as well as its goals, events, and activities.

They also asked the Academy to clearly outline how the UCMJ applied to military academy students’ speech.

“When, where, and to what extent are their First Amendment rights protected, and when they are subject to the code for partisan speech?” they asked.

“Does the USAFA still ask cadets to use “partner” instead of “girlfriend” or “boyfriend,” or any of the other examples of speech included in the USAFA diversity training slides released in the September 2023 hearing?” they also inquired.

Banks has been a leading figure in Congress in the effort to root out and expose wokeness threatening to undermine readiness and cohesion in the military.

First published on Breitbart News

Letter

March 7, 2024

LTG Richard M. Clark
Superintendent
United States Air Force Academy
2304 Cadet Drive
Air Force Academy, CO 80840

The Honorable Alex Wagner
Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower & Reserve Affairs
Department of the Air Force
1670 Air Force Pentagon
Washington, DC 20330-1670.

Dear General Clark and Assistant Secretary Wagner,

We write to you regarding the U.S. Air Force Academy’s (USAFA’s) National Character and Leadership Symposium, which took place from February 21, 2024, to February 23, 2024.

Specifically, we are concerned by U.S. Space Force engineer and member of the Air Force’s LGBT Initiatives Team Colonel (Col.) Bree Fram’s partisan statements criticizing President Trump’s transgender servicemember policy.

During a talk, Col. Fram stated: “While I don’t have a crystal ball, I can look out and say, ‘Well, either next year things will be great or I will be fighting for my ability to continue serving.’”

Col. Fram’s remarks fit into a pattern of partisan statements at military academy conferences.

On September 20, 2023, two members of the Military Personnel Subcommittee wrote you a letter, to which you failed to provide an adequate response, asking a series of questions about an Air Force cadet’s remark at the U.S. Military Academy’s Annual Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Conference that potentially violate Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).

The cadet said:

So, the United States Air Force Academy has a Diversity and Inclusion Minor that teaches classes on gender, race, and nationalism in the class, and these teachings have been incredibly controversial across the U.S. with an outright ban in Florida and the Superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy being questioned for it in Congress and the video going viral. Can cadets and service academies safeguard the teachings of these topics, or, if we get a particularly bad batch of Congressman, are these teachings like (sic) screwed?

In response to a reporter at the Daily Wire, the USAFA defended Col. Fram’s remarks, saying the comments “reinforced the value of diversity within our military and the importance of removing unnecessary barriers to service.”

In addition to defending left wing statements related to transgenderism in the military, the USAFA has a history of favoring radical viewpoints on transgenderism within the classroom.

In September 2023, Chairman of the Military Readiness Subcommittee Michael Waltz released USAFA diversity training slides that instructed cadets to, “use words that include all genders: ‘Folks’ or ‘Y’all’ instead of‘ guys’; ‘partner’ vs. ‘boyfriend or girlfriend,” and to “consider ‘parent or caregiver’ instead of mom and dad.”

No later than March 28, 2024, please provide the Military Personnel Subcommittee with answers to the following questions:

1. Is Colonel Fram still a member of Air Force’s LGBT Initiatives Team?

2. Is the Air Force’s LGBT Initiatives Team a full-time duty or a collateral duty for Col. Fram?

3. What is the purpose of the Air Force’s LGBT Initiatives Team? What are their goals, events, and activities?

4. Does the Air Force have similar initiative for other identity groups? If so, what are they, and what are their goals, events, and activities?

5. Can you explain the application of the UCMJ to military academy students as it relates to academic freedom and freedom of speech? When, where, and to what extent are their First Amendment rights protected, and when they are subject to the code for partisan speech?

6. Does the USAFA still ask cadets to use “partner” instead of “girlfriend” or “boyfriend,” or any of the other examples of speech included in the USAFA diversity training slides released in the September 2023 hearing?

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Jim Banks
Chairman, Military Personnel Subcommittee

Elise Stefanik
Member of Congress