By Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s definition, I’m a weirdo.
I have Taylor Swift friendship bracelets, I dance to Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club,” and I embrace and openly celebrate my LGBTQ+ family members and dear friends.
I’m often eccentric, quirky, and can be unconventional at times.
I also wear dog tags that indicate my Unitarian Universalist religious affiliation, a faith that is no longer recognized, under a Hegseth directive.
As secretary of our nation’s largest department, it was Hegseth’s idea to rebrand the Defense Department as the Department of War, without congressional approval.
A warrior, according to Hegseth, is one who is rugged and tough and rejects diversity, gender pronouns, and “woke” or “weird” policies in the ranks.
“We are no longer the woke department or the weak department,” he told military members in his “State of the Force” address in September at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.
“Simple translation of that — no fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors.” he said.
The audience, according to the reporters present, included a combination of junior officers and enlisted personnel.
“The ideological clowns are out,” he told them. “The patriotic cowboys are in, with testosterone testing on top.”
If his remarks weren’t so serious, I’d say they were ridiculous and laughable. But he wasn’t kidding, and he has even called for regular testing of male service members for “High T.”
What was even more appalling was the standing ovation he reportedly received at the conclusion of his remarks.
Hegseth is a lost cause. He doesn’t have any managerial abilities or, really, any usefulness for government service. His expertise lies in spewing bizarre and often hateful rhetoric on Fox News, where he still has a home.
Already there is considerable buzz around Republican Rep. Thomas Massie
introducing articles of impeachment against Hegseth as the scapegoat for the failed
and incredibly unpopular war with Iran. While a vote in the House could come as
soon as this week, most pundits say a vote is highly unlikely to result in a
conviction in the still GOP-controlled Senate.
That means it will be up to the new Congress, with Democrats in power, to
succeed in removing Hegseth. Congress must finally put a stop to not only his
incompetence but his hate-mongering. He is unfit to lead our troops. Trump, so far,
says he has “every intention” to keep Hegseth. That means that Hegseth must be
impeached and as soon as possible.
If Hegseth stays at the Pentagon, I guarantee that he will do everything he can to undermine any oversight of his duties and policies and will refuse to work with Democrats on the two congressional committees on armed services. Moreover, he will continue to have influence with junior officers and enlisted members, shaping a future generation of leaders in a toxic way.
I speak from experience. For my entire 20 years on active duty, including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, I worked with an incredibly diverse force of men and women, whose backgrounds and experiences made us the greatest military in the world.
We met our service’s rigorous physical fitness standards, and I can assure you, no one ever talked about testosterone.
Veterans I served with included Bree Fram, a colonel and aeronautical engineer who was forced to retire from the military because of Hegseth’s prohibition on transgender service.
Then there’s Emily Shilling, a decorated Navy combat aviator and test pilot with more than 60 combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. She is also transgender and she, too, was forced out after nearly two decades of meritorious military service.
In the enlisted ranks, Alex Shaffer, a noncommissioned officer, was directed to separate from military service because he was transgender. Alex had served as a combat medic in the National Guard since 2007.
These are among the 4,000 or more openly transgender service members or individuals with a gender dysphoria diagnosis who have been targeted under Hegseth.
Our military’s top Defense Department official, known among service personnel as “the SecDef,” must set an example for diversity, equity and inclusion, rather than eradicating DEI. That leader must set the tone and culture for more than 2.1 million troops. Since veterans often internalize what they learn from their time in the service, there can be lasting effects on their communities after they are discharged.
Furthermore, the SecDef must be trusted to lead our military with expertise and insight in geopolitics, military strategy, and diplomacy. The current SecDef is woefully incompetent in everything you would expect in a military leader.
It’s easy to scream about “weirdos,” and even easier to post videos about doing push-ups with the troops or about hormone screenings. What’s hard is running a vast workforce with arguably the most intricate and complex operational systems in our government.
The Blue Wave vote earlier this month proved that Americans want to move forward, and forward in a way that makes life better for everyone, including proud veteran service members and weirdos like me.
On this Veterans Day, I ask my fellow citizens to urge Congress to move forward in removing Hegseth and to demand that our next SecDef be screened for competence and for support of DEI. Our troops deserve better.
John Paradis, of Florence, is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and member of the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence. The views expressed here are his own.