The United States Air Force Academy’s leadership summit featured transgender activist Lieutenant Colonel Bree Fram, a man identifying as a woman.
The theme of the National Character and Leadership Symposium was “Embrace Culture, Empower People.”
According to Fram’s website, “Bree came out publicly as transgender on the day the transgender ban in the military was dropped in 2016. She transitioned while in a command position and served through the re-imposition of a transgender ban from 2019-2021. She is currently one of the highest ranking-out transgender officers in the United States military.”
Fram “co-leads the Department of the Air Force LGBTQ+ Initiatives Team, dedicated to eliminating barriers to LGBTQ+ military service in the Air and Space Force.”
“All too often, I hear leaders talk about providing everyone with dignity and respect like it’s an inspirational goal. That’s not good enough. Dignity and respect is the bare minimum,” Fram said during his speech. “It’s the floor of where we can be. We must set our sights higher and focus on intentional inclusivity, because there are still far too many people out there – not just LGBTQ individuals – that feel marginalized, shut out, or discriminated against.”
“So for all of you out there, I ask you to set out your symbols of pride, share your pronouns in your email, particularly if you’re a person who doesn’t think the need to, initiate difficult conversations about racial and gender barriers, and share a bit of your vulnerability in a way that draws others in.”
“You all have the power to take intentionally inclusive actions to ensure the multiple perspectives that we know make us stronger as we devise winning war-fighting strategies get heard,” Fram said.
The call for greater inclusivity comes as the Pentagon released a strategy calling for the development of a defense-industrial base focusing on diversity.
“Lack of diversity leads to a lack of new ideas and innovation,” the Pentagon states.
“Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is important to ensure that we have an industrial base that reflects the nation itself,” the report says, describing a goal of recruiting individuals from “non-traditional communities.”
As the Pentagon pushes DEI, the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs Chairman Glenn Grothman (R-WI) opened a hearing on the “Risks of Progressive Ideologies in the U.S. Military.”
“Our military is grappling with the Biden Administration’s social experiments of integrating principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion—or ‘DEI’—into their ranks,” he said. “The Pentagon often fails to recognize the financial burden these priorities place on taxpayers. DEI managers often making over $180,000 per year.”
Prior to the hearing, Grothman said in a statement, “Our military has one primary function: defend Americans and American interests at home and abroad. At least this was the primary function until the Biden Administration force fed progressivism into the branches of the armed services. Due to an avalanche of foreign policy blunders by the Biden Administration, the world is a less safe place.”
