Pentagon orders military to pull books related to DEI and ‘gender ideology’

Military leaders and commanders astatine the Pentagon were ordered connected Friday to spell done their libraries and reappraisal each books that are related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) successful the US military’s latest anti-DEI move.

Leaders were ordered to “promptly identify” materials that beforehand “divisive concepts and sex ideology [that] are incompatible with the department’s halfway mission”, according to a memo sent to leaders that was seen by the Associated Press. The section gave leaders until 21 May to region the books.

Also connected Friday, the Pentagon sent a abstracted memo to the military’s grooming academies that the institutions should person “no information of race, ethnicity oregon sex” successful their admittance process and should absorption “exclusively connected merit”, though they tin let for students who amusement “unique diversion talent”, according to the AP. The section ordered the administrations to certify these standards by mid-June.

The memo to leaders connected books follows a akin bid that was fixed to the subject academies, including the US Naval Academy, which removed astir 400 books from its library. Books that were withdrawn from the room included Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, novels by writers of colour including the Palestinian American Etaf Rum, and world books that analyse contention and gender.

The section said that a impermanent “academic libraries committee” volition convene to assistance the different colleges and academies region akin books from their collections. Librarians and unit were ordered to usage hunt presumption similar “affirmative action”, “anti-racism”, “critical contention theory” and “white privilege” erstwhile determining which books could beryllium taxable for removal.

The defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has vowed to purge DEI from the Pentagon, saying erstwhile helium took bureau earlier this twelvemonth that “our diverseness is our strength” is “the azygous dumbest operation successful subject history”.

Since January, the Trump medication has been overseeing a wide culling of thing the White House considers to beryllium DEI wrong the national government. The circumstantial fig of DEI roles that person been removed is unclear arsenic the national authorities isn’t keeping way oregon reporting which roles person been eliminated, but estimates accidental hundreds oregon perchance thousands of employees person been fired since the commencement of the year.