U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, questioned General C.Q. Brown, current Chief of Staff of the Air Force and nominee to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about woke Department of Defense (DOD) policies that forced an 18-year-old female member of the South Dakota National Guard to shower and sleep next to biological males who have yet to undergo sex change surgery. Rounds believes DOD policies should focus on performance rather than pronouns.
Rounds: “General, this is something I never thought I’d be sitting here in the United States Senate asking questions about, and yet it’s one that has been brought to my attention by our South Dakota Adjutant General.
General Brown, you will take the seat in the midst of the largest recruiting crisis in the history of DOD’s fifty-year all-volunteer force. While the Services struggle to meet recruiting numbers, there has been an increased emphasis on immutable characteristics like race and sex, and the Department has increasingly focused on new policies and plans in areas like ‘equity,’ ‘extremism,’ gender ideology, abortion and sex change operations. There is even a growing bureaucracy that focuses on these issues.
I am aware of a situation, that was just brought to my attention, where a young woman in the South Dakota National Guard experienced a situation at basic training where she was sleeping in open bays and showering with biological males who had not had gender reassignment surgery, but were documented as females because they had begun the drug therapy process. This 18-year-old girl was uncomfortable with her situation but had limited options on how to deal with it. If she raised her hand, she feared she’d be targeted for retaliation. She could have recycled which would have delayed her freshman college start and would not have provided a guarantee of a different situation. She could request to leave the Guard for religious purposes and not be able to pursue her dream of serving our country.
General Brown, this is a challenging situation, if confirmed as the Chairman, how do you propose to handle situations like this, which I truly believe may be impacting recruitment and morale, by placing a disproportionate emphasis on gender-related ideology?”
Brown: “Senator, one of the things I’ve thought about throughout my career, as you’re being inclusive you also don’t want to make other individuals uncomfortable, and so there’s areas when we look at our policies and approaches and get feedback like this, we have to take a look to see if we can improve on how we approach situations like this. As I’ve done as the service chief and as I’ve done throughout my career, if confirmed, I will continue to do so.”
Click HERE to watch Rounds’ remarks.
