During Wednesday’s House Armed Services Committee (HASC) hearing on “Admissions, Curriculum, and Diversity of Thought at the Military Service Academies,” the United States Air Force Academy Superintendent, Lieutenant (Lt.) General (Gen.) Richard M. Clark, was unable to define gender-ideology terms that are promoted on Department of Defense (DoD) campuses when questioned by U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz (FL-01).
Video of Rep. Gaetz’s interaction with Lt. Gen. Clark at the HASC hearing can be found HERE and below. A rough transcript can also be found immediately below:
BREAKING: U.S. Air Force Academy Superintendent Can't Define Gender Ideology Terms That They Promote on Campuses!
🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/v2OAGq0LFl
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) July 19, 2023
TRANSCRIPT
Rep. Gaetz: A diverse and inclusive force is a warfighting imperative. This is on a slide at the Air Force Academy General Clark, do you agree with that statement?
Lt. Gen.Clark: I do agree with that statement, sir.
Rep. Gaetz: So I mean, were the Mongols diverse?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Well, sir, I’m not really as versed on Mongol warfighting is.
Rep. Gaetz: How about the war fighting? Were the Vikings diverse?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Again, sir, I’m looking at our country, the most diverse country in the world
Rep. Gaetz: sure. But this is about a warfighting imperative. How about the fight the force in Ukraine? Are the Ukrainians fighting the Russians a diverse force?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Sir, once again, my concern is the people that I’m charged to build into leaders.
Rep. Gaetz: Right. But you would you would acknowledge that throughout history, including present history, that statement hasn’t born true in every example. Right?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Sir what I would say is that those countries have to rely on the full force of their population, to build a war fighting to win our wars. And that’s why it’s important for us to be diverse, because nation.
Rep. Gaetz: Let’s look at the population that actually makes up the fighting force frequently. Now we have more men and women, right? 70-30 ish.
Lt. Gen.Clark: That’s correct.
Rep. Gaetz: And of the men we have, most of them are not transgender men. Most of them are cisgender men, right?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Yes, sir.
Rep. Gaetz: But yet, at our academies, we put push something called the Brooke Owens fellowship. Are you familiar with that?
Lt. Gen.Clark: I am. Yes, sir.
Rep. Gaetz: And in that fellowship, it specifically says, If you are a cisgender, man, this program isn’t for you. So you just said that your answer on why we why we do such this, this full hug of these diversity concepts is because it’s all about the fighting force that we draw from, but you’re literally pushing a program in the academies that says, if you’re a cisgender woman, a transgender woman, a non binary, agender, bi gender, 2 spirit, Demi gender, what’s Demi gender?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Sir, that’s a that’s a term of the people that are eligible for that particular scholarship
Rep. Gaetz: But what’s a Demi gender person?
Lt. Gen.Clark: It’s a person who looks at their gender in a in a different, a different way than I do, sir.
Rep. Gaetz: Well, sure. That’s all of these people. You’re a cisgender. Man, you don’t even get to apply.
Lt. Gen.Clark: Well
Rep. Gaetz: Do you know what Demi gender really means?
Lt. Gen.Clark: I’m not really sure, sir.
Rep. Gaetz: Right. So do you know what agender means? All one word, not a space gender. But agender?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Sir, I don’t.
Rep. Gaetz: Right. So here we are pushing a fellowship, calling for people that you don’t even know what the words mean. And the number one group of people, the cisgender men are excluded? Not in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion. Should we be pushing programs that we can’t define that exclude the largest group of servicemembers?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Well, sir, first, that program is not an Air Force Academy program. It’s a program open to our entire country.
Rep. Gaetz: Right. We allow guys advocate for within the academy.
Lt. Gen.Clark: We allow our cadets to apply for it.
Rep. Gaetz: Why are you allowing your cadets to apply for a program when you cannot define the basic terms of eligibility?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Because it’s an opportunity for us to develop them as warfighters. And we look for every opportunity that we can
Rep. Gaetz: But you don’t even know what the words mean, how can you use this as a way to develop the warfighters? If you don’t know what it means?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Well, some of those could those terms may not be applicable to us at the Air Force Academy, but some are
Rep. Gaetz: But if you don’t know what they mean, it’s hard to tell if they’re applicable or not. So I think one of the reasons why some of this stuff has gotten into the academies is because we don’t have the same oversight from the Board of Visitors and Mr. Chairman, I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record. An article from The Washington Examiner entitled to push woke ideology Biden illegally gutted Military Academy oversight boards. And so in this piece, it goes through a timeline. We’re on September 8, 2021, all of President Trump’s appointees were fired on September 17, Secretary Austin created Board of Visitors subcommittees, and then he populated those subcommittees with people who weren’t on the Board of Visitors. Have you ever seen that happen before?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Sir, our Board of Visitors is populated and and supports us in great fashion.
Rep. Gaetz: Right. What about the subcommittee? Are there people on the board of visitors subcommittees who are not on the Board of Visitors?
Lt. Gen.Clark: I can’t answer that, sir.
Rep. Gaetz: Seems like something we ought to know.
Lt. Gen.Clark: Um, yes, sir. I’m not sure right.
Rep. Gaetz: But that would be odd. Right? I mean, here. I’ll let me ask the question this way. You don’t have any basis to disagree with the reporting here in the Washington Examiner that literally we have people who are not on the board of visitors who are serving on the subcommittee’s you have no basis to disagree with that, do you?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Sir, I’m not exactly sure the question you’re answering asking. I’ll have to take that for record so I can understand exactly what you’re asking.
