{"id":2413150,"date":"2025-03-14T07:19:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T11:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/7-eos-congress-should-codify-to-keep-woke-out-of-the-military\/"},"modified":"2025-03-14T07:19:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T11:19:02","slug":"7-eos-congress-should-codify-to-keep-woke-out-of-the-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/7-eos-congress-should-codify-to-keep-woke-out-of-the-military\/","title":{"rendered":"7 EOs Congress Should Codify To Keep Woke Out Of The Military"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2F7-eos-congress-should-codify-to-keep-woke-out-of-the-military%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2413150&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>We are witnessing in our military a major paradigm shift toward common sense and away from wokeism &mdash; defined as&nbsp;<em>progressivism taken to extremes and imposed with coercion, even if it hurts the institution.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump has issued a series of executive orders addressing three overarching goals: Meritocracy and non-discrimination instead of &ldquo;equity&rdquo; for favored groups, common sense definitions of &ldquo;sex&rdquo; and respect for sex differences, and elimination of divisive critical race theory (CRT) programs.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This won&rsquo;t be easy because the weeds of wokeism are deeply rooted in the Defense Department, and they did not spring up overnight.&nbsp;Pentagon ideologues have been cultivating them for years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In 2011, the Military Leadership Diversity Commission issued a 162-page report titled&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/cmrlink.org\/data\/sites\/85\/CMRDocuments\/MLDC_Final.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">From Representation to Inclusion: Diversity Leadership for the 21st-Century Military<\/a>. MLDC recommendations shifted the military&rsquo;s cultural priorities away from meritocracy and nondiscrimination toward &ldquo;diversity, equity, and inclusion&rdquo; (DEI) as paramount goals.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Previously, the armed forces assigned priority to individual merit, performance, and the needs of the military.&nbsp;The MLDC altered that paradigm by rejecting &ldquo;color-blind&rdquo; policies and admitting that &ldquo;fair treatment&rdquo; was&nbsp;&ldquo;not about treating everyone the same.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Accordingly, Defense Department officials replaced equal opportunity with outcome-based preferences favoring some demographic groups over others.&nbsp;Before long, the DoD&rsquo;s favorite meme, &ldquo;Diversity is a strategic imperative,&rdquo; justified the full range of progressive social changes that are now called &ldquo;wokism in the military.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Meritocracy &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) &ldquo;No&rdquo;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Under President Joe Biden, diversity-crats ruled the Pentagon. On January 20, however, President Trump signed an executive order&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/01\/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As CMR reported&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/cmrlink.org\/data\/sites\/85\/CMRDocuments\/CMRPolicyAnalysisFebruary2025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>, Trump&rsquo;s EO called for termination of all discriminatory programs, including the Biden administration&rsquo;s vast&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/us\/new-study-reveals-staggering-scope-of-how-much-dei-das-infused-into-government-under-biden\/ar-AA1AATt2?ocid=BingNewsSerp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">DEI bureaucracy<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/10\/147#:~:text=There%20is%20a%20Chief%20Diversity%20Officer%20of%20the,business%20background%20and%20experience%20with%20diversity%20and%20inclusion.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">chief diversity officer (CDO)<\/a>&nbsp;positions, universal&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/cmrlink.org\/data\/sites\/85\/CMRDocuments\/CMR%20Policy%20Analysis%20March%202023_Rev060723.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Equity Action Plans<\/a>, and illegal diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) programs &hellip;&nbsp;&ldquo;under whatever name they appear.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Another EO,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/01\/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity<\/a>&nbsp;(Jan. 21), affirmed the policy of the United States to&nbsp;&ldquo;protect the civil rights of all Americans and to promote individual initiative, excellence, and hard work.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This order cited the Supreme Court&rsquo;s decision in&nbsp;<em>Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and the University of N. Carolina&nbsp;<\/em>(2023).&nbsp;It also revoked President Lyndon Johnson&rsquo;s 1965 executive order that inadvertently created today&rsquo;s system of racial categorization, which the Supreme Court described as&nbsp;&ldquo;imprecise,&rdquo; &ldquo;overbroad,&rdquo; &ldquo;arbitrary,&rdquo; &ldquo;undefined,&rdquo; &ldquo;incoherent,&rdquo;&nbsp;and based on&nbsp;&ldquo;irrational stereotypes.&rdquo; &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Reinforcing Trump&rsquo;s EO&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/01\/restoring-americas-fighting-force\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Restoring America&rsquo;s Fighting Force<\/a>&nbsp;(Jan. 27), Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth&rsquo;s Jan. 29&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/media.defense.gov\/2025\/Jan\/29\/2003634987\/-1\/-1\/1\/RESTORING-AMERICAS-FIGHTING-FORCE.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">memorandum<\/a>&nbsp;stated:&nbsp;&ldquo;The DoD will strive to provide merit-based, color-blind, equal opportunities to Service members but will not guarantee or strive for equal outcomes.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Gender Identity and Common Sense<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>A key executive order titled&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/01\/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government<\/a>&nbsp;(Jan. 20) restored sound policy with an honest&nbsp;endorsement of science:<em>&ldquo;<\/em>&lsquo;Sex&rsquo; shall refer to an individual&rsquo;s immutable biological classification as either male or female.&nbsp;&lsquo;Sex&rsquo; is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of &lsquo;gender identity.&rsquo;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The truth-telling EO continued: &ldquo;Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being. &hellip;&nbsp;[Therefore,]&nbsp;it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.&rdquo; &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Referring to&nbsp;&ldquo;legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women&rsquo;s domestic abuse shelters to women&rsquo;s workplace showers,&rdquo;&nbsp;Trump affirmed,&nbsp;&ldquo;This is wrong.&rdquo; &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Under&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/cmrlink.org\/data\/sites\/85\/CMRDocuments\/CMR_PolicyAnalysis_February2023.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Biden-era transgender policies<\/a>, military women were forced to accept in their private living areas men who changed their &ldquo;gender marker&rdquo; in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS). Secretary Hegseth&rsquo;s Feb. 7&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.dcd.276845\/gov.uscourts.dcd.276845.33.1.pdf?email=467cb6399cb7df64551775e431052b43a775c749&amp;emaila=12a6d4d069cd56cfddaa391c24eb7042&amp;emailb=054528e7403871c79f668e49dd3c44b1ec00c7f611bf9388f76bb2324d6ca5f3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">memorandum<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.defense.gov\/Portals\/1\/Spotlight\/2025\/Guidance_For_Federal_Policies\/Prioritizing_Military_Excellence_and_Readiness_P&amp;R_Guidance.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&ldquo;Additional Guidance&rdquo;<\/a>&nbsp;(Feb. 26) changed that:&nbsp;&ldquo;All military records will reflect the Service member&rsquo;s sex,&rdquo;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&ldquo;Access to intimate spaces will be determined by Service members&rsquo; or applicants for military service&rsquo;s sex.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Gender Dysphoria and Eligibility to Serve<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The EO titled&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/01\/prioritizing-military-excellence-and-readiness\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness<\/a>&nbsp;(Jan. 27) directed the secretary of defense to restore gender dysphoria to the list of psychological conditions that make a person ineligible for military service due to &ldquo;excessive time lost from duty for necessary treatment or hospitalization.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Under the Jan. 27 order, defense dollars will no longer provide expensive subsidies for lifelong hormones or surgeries that attempt to change sex, and the DoD will end&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2024\/04\/21\/military-could-hit-troops-with-court-martials-for-refusing-to-use-preferred-pronouns-experts-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mandatory use<\/a>&nbsp;of&nbsp;&ldquo;invented&rdquo; &ldquo;pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual&rsquo;s sex.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Another order,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/01\/protecting-children-from-chemical-and-surgical-mutilation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation<\/a>&nbsp;(Jan. 28), confronted &ldquo;the radical and false claim that adults can change a child&rsquo;s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions. This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation&rsquo;s history, and it must end.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Consistent with these common sense orders, the Jan. 31 news release&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.defense.gov\/News\/Releases\/Release\/Article\/4050331\/identity-months-dead-at-dod\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Identity Months Dead at DoD<\/a>&nbsp;(Jan. 31) prohibited &ldquo;pride&rdquo; events, including sexualized drag performances before military children and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/06\/06\/the-air-force-is-using-taxpayer-money-to-fly-service-members-to-branch-pride-events\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">paid time off and travel<\/a>&nbsp;to participate in such events.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Affirming Sound Priorities, Not Critical Race Theory (CRT)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>President Trump&rsquo;s order titled&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/01\/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling<\/a>&nbsp;(Jan. 29) eliminated funding for&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cmrlink.org\/issues\/full\/dod-reassigns-school-official-kelisa-wing-and-disbands-crtpromoting-dei-office\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CRT indoctrination<\/a>&nbsp;in K-12 schools, meaning teachings that &ldquo;members of one race, color, sex, or national origin are morally or inherently superior &hellip; [or]&nbsp;an individual, by virtue of the individual&rsquo;s race, color, sex, or national origin, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The order also prohibited military school CRT programs teaching that the United States&nbsp;&ldquo;is&nbsp;fundamentally racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What Should Happen Next<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Trump administration&rsquo;s bold executive actions will not be permanent unless Congress codifies them in law. In doing so, Congress&nbsp;should affirm four main principles: merit as the exclusive basis for personnel actions, a prohibition of non-merit factors such as racial or gender preferences, clear definitions for all key terms, and narrow exceptions to permit mission-specific operational requirements.&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Three more principles should guide congressional action to eliminate wokeism in the military: Defund DEI and CRT in all DoD agencies, deter &ldquo;re-branding&rdquo; by defining divisive DEI practices, and repeal previous legislation authorizing DEI personal and operations.<\/p>\n<p>A statute incorporating these elements would be a durable way to support our military by affirming meritocracy, ending discrimination, and restoring common sense programs that strengthen military readiness and morale.<\/p>\n<p><em>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realcleardefense.com\/articles\/2025\/03\/13\/military_paradigm_swinging_away_from_wokeism_toward_meritocracy_1097215.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article<\/a> was originally published by RealClearDefense.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>   Elaine Donnelly is president of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cmrlink.org\/\">Center for Military Readiness<\/a>, an independent public policy organization that reports on and analyzes military and social issues.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are witnessing in our military a major paradigm shift toward common sense and away from wokeism \u2014 defined as\u00a0progressivism taken to extremes and imposed with coercion, even if it hurts the institution.\u00a0 Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump has issued a series of executive orders addressing three overarching goals: Meritocracy and non-discrimination instead of \u201cequity\u201d for favored<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":504,"featured_media":2413151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Copy-of-Untitled-2025-03-13T135623.881.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2413150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Copy-of-Untitled-2025-03-13T135623.881.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/504"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2413150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2413151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2413150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2413150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2413150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}