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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Pentagon to purge its digital footprint of all content that promotes diversity, including months that celebrate cultural awareness.
In a memo obtained by Rolling Stone, Hegseth has instructed the Department of Defense’s public affairs team to “take all practicable steps” to “remove all DoD news and feature articles, photos, and videos that promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).” The memo continues: “A blanket statement should be provided on social media platforms to acknowledge content was removed to align with the President’s executive orders and DoD priorities.”
Hegseth clarified that such diversity content includes “information that promotes programs, concepts, or materials about critical race theory, gender ideology, and preferential treatment or quotas based upon sex, race or ethnicity, or other DEI-related matters with respect ot promotion and selection reform, advisory boards, councils, and working groups.” It adds that other ”content requiring removal” includes anything“counter to merit-based or color-blind policies (e.g., articles that focus on immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex).”
The only exceptions to the policy outlined by Hegseth are content required by law or pertaining to on-base conditions and services, morale and recreation, or the biographies of current and past leadership.
The directive comes as the military prepares to oust all trangender service members from its ranks. “Service members who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria will be processed for separation from military service,” a DoD memo said earlier this week. The ban on cultural awareness months appears to affect Pride month, which the Pentagon has previously marked. The Pentagon had already suspended its traditional celebration of Black History Month at the beginning of this month.
In one of his first acts in office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order accusing the armed forces of having “been afflicted with radical gender ideology to appease activists unconcerned with the requirements of military service like physical and mental health, selflessness, and unit cohesion.”
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, centered much of his public confirmation push around an anti-diversity, anti-LGBTQ message that is now being implemented with full force.
“The single dumbest phrase in military history is ‘our diversity is our strength,’” Hegseth said earlier this month during a town hall meeting at the Pentagon. “From our perspective, why do you get rid of something like DEI? Because from our perspective, it’s served a purpose of dividing the force, as opposed to uniting the force.”
Of course, the greatest divisions in the military have historically been its dark history of racial segregation, the exclusion and abuse of female service members, and policies like “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which forced queer service members to stay in the closet. While Hegseth postures that the true strength of the armed forces will be in “colorblind” and merit-based unity, one of the first acts of his secretariat is to expel thousands of servicemembers who have volunteered to put their lives on the line for their country simply because he doesn’t like who they are.
