Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BRECHEEN. Mr. Chairman, this amendment would prohibit drag shows and drag queen story hours at U.S. military bases and installations. This measure is essential to ensure that our military remains focused on its core mission.

President Biden and his Department of Defense have hosted multiple drag show events as the left continues to push a sexual agenda on servicemembers, showing total disregard for our troops who signed up to protect this country, not to be subjected to far-left policies.

This agenda doesn't stop at our men and women in uniform. The Biden administration is also targeting young children in an effort to spread its views, its sexual agenda.

In 2022, a military base in Virginia hosted a kid-friendly diversity, equity, and inclusion summer festival--and I use air quotes, kid- friendly--featuring ``Harpy Daniels--the Navy Drag Queen,'' where children were encouraged to attend. That same summer, another base scheduled a drag queen story hour for children.

Our country depends on a lethal military capable of rising to any occasion, just as the Allied forces did 80 years ago when they stormed the beaches of Normandy. They exemplified patriotism and courage.

It seems the Biden administration and its DOD is more focused on promoting drag queens, waving the rainbow flag in a cultural war, preparing them for the cultural battle versus preparing a real fighting force advancing the red, white, and blue on a real battlefield.

This is nothing short of an insult to our troops. It is a mockery to history and those who died fighting for this country. What would General Eisenhower and General MacArthur say? I believe they would encourage a return to thousands of years of history of societal norms, not the current sexual fad that is in tandem with our armed services not being able to meet their recruitment goals, being down 30 percent during the Biden administration.

Young men who make up the bulk of our fighting forces are inspired by GI Joe. They are not inspired by: Be a Barbie girl in a Barbie world.

Although the DOD indicated it would stop hosting drag queen events last year, this informal decision lacks the force of law and was only made after significant public backlash. We have every reason to believe the DOD would resume these events tomorrow if they felt they could get away with it. We should codify this and not give them that option.

Mr. ROBERT GARCIA of California. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BRECHEEN. Mr. Chairman, this amendment simply codifies what the DOD stated last year that, ``holding these type of events in federally funded facilities is not suitable use of DOD resources.''

I remind my colleagues that the language in this amendment passed in last year's NDAA, which almost all Republicans and some Democrats voted for, Americans' tax dollars should not be paying for or be used to prop up paying for men to dress up as women in sexualized performances.

I take exception to the comment that this is something that was occurring during the Greatest Generation. What may be referenced is something totally different than something now that is designed to sexualize this culture.

Mr. Chairman, I yield the balance of my time.

Mr. ROBERT GARCIA of California. Mr. Chairman, I remind my colleagues that art should be celebrated in this country. There are all forms of art. Whether it is going to a live theater performance, whether they are seeing something in a gallery, whether they are enjoying a sculpture, whether they are seeing a live music performance, or whether they are seeing a drag show, it is all a form of art. It is also an American art form that has been around our country for hundreds of years and has been on military bases since the USO was performing these similar types of shows.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment is a culture-war stunt that does nothing to make our troops safer. It politicizes our military and silences servicemembers who just want to be themselves. It is Big Government telling our troops they aren't smart enough to decide if they want to attend a particular type of entertainment and that Congress knows best in what is funny or may not be funny.

We should respect drag artists for the talent that they are and for the artists that they are. We should focus on real solutions to make life better for our troops and for our country.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source