Watch or read this exchange between Rep. Matt Gaetz and the stunning tone-deaf things Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth said in response to his question that the Army’s policy where transgender biological males can shower with women hurts recruitment. Watch video:
TRANSCRIPT
Rep. Matt Gaetz
When Secretary Austin was here, neither he nor General Millie could defend some of the bizarre DEI activities that were going on at DODEA. And then promptly after my questioning, they shut down the DEI entity at DODEA. And so maybe we can make similar progress today.
Ms. Wormuth, do you acknowledge that some of the strange manifestations of this DEI embrace have put negative pressures on the Army’s recruiting?
Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth
Congressman, I’m not sure exactly what specifically you’re referring to, but when we’ve done surveys. . . . .
Rep. Matt Gaetz
Put that slide up on the screen. I’ll give you one. I thought that might be where this was going. So this is a vignette aid [SEE BELOW]. It’s an army training, and it’s regarding the use of showers. The vignette reads a soldier transitioned from male to female. As indicated in DEERS, the soldier did not have sex reassignment surgery.
The transgender service member is using the female showers and has expressed privacy concerns regarding the open bay shower configuration.
Similarly, other soldiers have expressed discomfort showering with a female who has male genitalia.
And then if you look over at subpart three regarding the considerations, it just says all soldiers will use the building, bathroom and shower facilities associated with their gender marker in DEERS. What’s your reaction to that?
Screenshots of two different Army transgender training videos (Gaetz showed the first one at the hearing). Click to enlarge:
Army Transgender Policy NYARNG Leader Brief (DVIDS, 11 FEB 2017)
U.S. Army Transgender Policy Tier 3 Training for Units and Soldiers (DVIDS, 27 MAR 2017)
More DOD transgender on DOD DVIDS
Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth
My reaction, Congressman, is we’re focused on building cohesive teams that are trained, disciplined and . . . .
Rep. Matt Gaetz
General McConville, I’ll give you the next chance. Do you think that it builds cohesive teams to have biological males showering with women?
Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. James McConville
I think we need to respect the privacy of our soldiers and have an environment where everyone can thrive.
Rep. Matt Gaetz
Well, of course, but that’s not an answer to my question.
You and I spent a good amount of productive time yesterday talking about cohesive team building.
Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. James McConville
We did.
Rep. Matt Gaetz
Does this advance cohesive team building in your best military opinion?
Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. James McConville
Well, I think the fact we’re talking about this and not talking about war fighting is problematic.
Rep. Matt Gaetz
But that’s what the army does, General, I’m looking here–Army policy on transgender military service–where you guys require training on this stuff.
So don’t you think that when you require training on how to deal with men and women’s shower stalls, and when you have these mandatory trainings on transgender service members, that that takes away from our focus on war fighting?
Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. James McConville
Yeah, I think, I think what, you know, again, from Chief Staff of the army, my focus is very clear. I talk to every commander, every sergeant major in the army. I do it every single month. And what I talk about is our job is build cohesive teams that are highly trained, they’re disciplined, they’re fit, and they’re ready to fight and win. And that’s where I’m at.
Rep. Matt Gaetz
I am positing that when there is a focus on how biological men are going to shower with women and on unconscious bias training, which you require, and on mandatory gender sensitivity training, that the call is coming from inside the house at DoD on some of these problems.
The proofs in the pudding that there seems to be a cognitive dissidence between your recruiting nightmare that we are living through, the nation’s recruiting nightmare at the army, and this kind of stuff.
I don’t think it’s going to be a big positive recruiting pitch to women that when someone shows up with male genitalia in their shower stall that we tell them that we’re trying to build a cohesive team. I would posit to you that that probably makes the team a little less cohesive. Will you allow for even that possibility?
Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth
Congressman, what we’ve seen in our surveys is that basically women are more worried about being sexually harassed in the army than they are about these kinds of things.
Rep. Matt Gaetz
Well, don’t you think that someone might get sexually harassed if they’re showering with a biological male?! Don’t you think that that environment could potentially increase the likelihood of that?!
We’re all concerned about sexual harassment. We’ve grappled with these challenges about how to have it in the chain of command or outside the chain of command.
But it seems a little silly to sit here and have discussions about the flow chart of a sexual harassment complaint when you’ve got people with male genitalia showering with your female soldiers.
I want to recruit talented women into our army, and I’m concerned that this weird stuff that you guys are doing is not going to make it more likely that those people are going to sign up.
General McConville, you and I spoke yesterday about the fact that the army has to recruit extensively men from the American South. That that makes up a wide variety of who’s coming into the United States Army. You think you’re going to recruit more of them with this kind of stuff?
Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. James McConville
Probably not.
Rep. Matt Gaetz
And that’s the point. And I appreciate the honesty, and I know that in August you conclude a storied career, and we thank you both for your service. And we did get somewhere with this last time with Secretary Austin.
And I hope you all will reflect on the damage that this embrace of DEI is doing to the military.
But would she want her daughters showering with a male who says he identifies as a female?:
Army Secretary Says She Wouldn’t Want Her Daughters Living in Some Army Barracks (Military.com, 19 ARP 23)
BREAKING: Top Army General ADMITS that the BIZARRE practice of forcing women to shower w biological males is harmful to Army recruiting.
Meanwhile, the Biden admin official defended the creepy showers!
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) April 19, 2023
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