WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – A federal judge ruled that the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) must restore hundreds of “woke” books from schools operated for military families on First Amendment grounds.
On January 29, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” which called for, among other things, cutting off federal funds to schools that commit ideological or identity-based indoctrination in “K-12 curriculum, instruction, programs, or activities.” He also engaged in similar efforts to purge “woke agendas” from the military, and diversity, equity, & inclusion (DEI) initiatives across the federal government.
As part of that work, the Department of Defense Education Activity (DODEA) removed hundreds of books promoting “gender ideology” or “discriminatory equity ideology” from the 161 accredited schools it maintains across the world for the children of U.S. service members.
The far-left American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), along with its Kentucky and Virginia chapters, sued on behalf of 12 students, and on October 20, U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles sided with them, Courthouse News Service reported, ordering the Pentagon to restore nearly 600 books to the plaintiffs’ five schools, including left-wing works such as the feminist victimhood fantasy “A Handmaid’s Tale” but also more classical books such as George Orwell’s “1984.”
“Surely, if defendants were concerned with pedagogical interests through book removals, they would be able to tender evidence of the age-level perspective they consider and detailed information on the specific pedagogical standards at issue,” Giles wrote. “In all candor, the court cannot contemplate the pedagogical basis for banning the ‘Gender and Sex’ module from Advanced Placement Psychology; lessons on immigration in elementary school; chapters on ‘Human Reproductive System, Menstrual Cycle, and Fetal Development,’ ‘Abuse and Neglect’ and ‘Adolescence and Puberty’ from health education textbooks; and celebrations related to ‘identity months,’ including Black History and Women’s History Months.”
“Viewing public school libraries as places of academic freedom and intellectual pursuit conflicts with the United States’ notion that school libraries represent government speech,” the judge added. “Where other courts have declined to extend the government speech doctrine to the public library context, this court follows suit.”
The ruling is not a final resolution of the First Amendment claim, only a determination that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in the judge’s opinion.
The steady rise of “woke” ideology within the military, which has persisted and grown since the Clinton years despite the presidencies of Republicans George W. Bush and Trump’s first administration, were intensified by former President Joe Biden, who upon taking office quickly moved to open the military to recruits suffering from gender dysphoria in a reversal of Trump policy, then had Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin launch a review of supposed “domestic extremism” within the military that many saw as a pretext to purge conservative views from the ranks.
Under Biden, the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, Secret Service, State Department, Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, National Security Agency, Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, Immigration & Customs Enforcement, Customs & Border Protection, Citizenship and Immigration Services, Transportation Security Administration, FEMA, and more all celebrated Pride Month with social media posts, official messages, rainbow flags, videos, and more.
In March 2023, the Center for Military Readiness (CMR) published an update on the administration’s work to infuse the armed forces with left-wing gender ideology, ranging from enforcement of preferred pronouns to allowing cross-dressing and the use of opposite-sex showers and restrooms on military bases to making it harder to access information on the negative consequences of such policies. Last November, the Pentagon requested an additional $114.7 million for diversity programs in the upcoming fiscal year, representing $269.2 million in taxpayer dollars just on military diversity since Biden took office.
Until December 2022, Biden’s Pentagon leaders also enforced COVID-19 vaccine mandates on American service men and women, provoking lawsuits and threatening soldier and pilot shortages in the tens of thousands while only adding to broader problems of force strength, troop morale, and public confidence.
In the first month of Trump’s second administration, he began the reversal of past presidents’ politicization of the military by reinstating soldiers who had been discharged over COVID shots with their former ranks, back pay, and benefits; reestablishing a ban on service members afflicted with gender dysphoria; and ordering the elimination of “Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion” (DEI) programs from the military and discharge of service members afflicted with gender confusion. The administration has also banned LGBT “Pride” and “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) flags from being flown at U.S. embassies and other State Department facilities and ended observation of all identity-based “cultural awareness” months.
