America's Talking - New Bill Would Ban U.S. Department of Defense From Funding Adult Cabaret, Drag Shows

Episode Date: May 13, 2023

A Republican lawmaker wants to prohibit the U.S. Department of Defense from using taxpayer funds for drag queen shows and other adult cabaret performances. U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., introduced legislation to stop the department from using taxpayer funds or taxpayer-funded facilities to host such performances. The bill comes after the U.S. Navy said it had one of its sailors, a drag performer and social media influencer, serve as a Digital Ambassador for military recruitment. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to American Focus, powered by the Center Square. I am Dan McAulib, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. Casey Harper has the day off. So joining me is the Center Square investigative reporter, Brett Rowland. We are recording this on Friday, May 12th. Brett, across the country, it seems, for the past year, two years maybe. There has been a national debate and state-focused debates about LGBTQ rights. One of the things that has been contentious, particularly, between Republicans and Democrats, both in the states, but also nationally, has to do with things such as like drag queen performances in which children are invited to attend these things. It's been controversial. And another thing that's been happening, Casey Harper has reported on this at the federal level, is how federal departments, federal agencies are incorporating things like

diversity and inclusion policies in their things, including when it comes to LGBT things. One of the concerns among Republicans, at least, is these kinds of new policies are hurting our military preparedness. The Department of Defense is one of the agencies that have put these kinds of policies in place. Well, a Republican lawmaker this week said he wants to prohibit the U.S. Department for Defense from using taxpayer funds for things like drag queen shows and other adult cabaret performances. Tell us more about this. Well, this was sort of interesting, and it's been in response to, as you mentioned, the sort of culture wars over drag queen shows and performances.

But this actually is a little bit broader than just drag queen shows. So this legislation would stop the department from using any taxpayer funds or taxpayer funded facilities, such as military bases, to host such performances. It came essentially in response to after the Navy had said that it used one of its sailors, who was a drag queen performer and social media influencer, to serve as a digital ambassador as part of a larger recruitment program. So this caused some amount of concern, and a number of Republican senators have raised questions about it,

and they even send a letter to the Secretary of the Navy about this. But essentially, they're saying, you know, what are we doing with our money here? We're supposed to be using this to get our men and women ready and be prepared to defend our country when this doesn't seem sort of like within that mission. They also raise concerns essentially about, would the Navy use a stripper to try to recruit people? And they basically said, you know,

if our military is going to be a professional workplace, we need to sort of clean up standards around this. They want to make sure that there's no money being used for this. And they sort of broadly defined adult cabaret performances as a performance that features topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers or male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a curiant interest. Which I think is interesting, but it's certainly allowed there, huh, Dan? Yeah, and I do think Republicans make a good point that the purpose of the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. military is to be hyper-focused on defending the country, preparing our troops

in the case they're sent overseas or, God forbid, have to defend the homeland here. So it does seem that this whole other conversation is a distraction. The legislation you referenced was filed by U.S. Senator Steve Dane's Republican from Montana, but is all things that come before Congress, Brett, with Republicans having a slight majority in the House and Democrats having a slight majority in the Senate. And of course, President Joe Biden being a Democrat, the prospects for this piece of legislation passing is slim and none. Is that accurate? Exactly. So I think that we're going to see more of this.

And I think that this shows us a couple of things. Certainly this bill's not going to pass. But it shows you, one, where the two sides are at. and what they would like to get passed if they could have their way. And I think that those are interesting prospects just to look at how far apart they are in some of these issues. And I don't know that we're going to make any progress here. It certainly doesn't seem like there's middle ground. Well, this certainly is a cultural issue that has divided the country for the past couple of years.

Well, it's not just cultural, though, because in this case, there's real concerned about taxpayer dollars being used for this, too. So that would I think would, would really go into not just, you know, how people may or may not feel about drag shows, but about, you know, military using DOD funding for that type of performance. Excellent point. Thank you for clarifying that. Certainly the how government spends taxpayer dollars needs to be scrutinized by media and by voters and taxpayers, et cetera. Listeners can keep up on this story and more at the center square.com, but we are out of time for Brett Rowland. I'm Dan McKeel. Thank you for listening.

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