So long Bob Hope and the USO. Entertainment for U.S. troops stationed overseas appears to be turning to the bizarre and aberrant, as the brass at Kadena Air Base in Japan recently turned a blind eye to a “drag queen” show at the base’s NCO club.
The Defense Department’s official service member newspaper, Stars and Stripes, reported that while the Pentagon has thrown in the towel on allowing homosexual soldiers and same-sex marriage ceremonies on military bases, morals and morale have appeared to take an additional tumble as military personnel at the base “may have been the first to take to the stage and perform as drag queens on a military installation in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender troops.”
The military newspaper reported that on March 2 a half dozen soldiers, “gay, lesbian and straight, donned heavy makeup to dance and lip sync songs such as ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody’ for a raucous capacity crowd at the Rocker NCO Club at Kadena Air Base. The event was a fundraiser for the recently formed Okinawa chapter of OutServe-SLDN, which is the largest nonprofit advocate for the military’s LGBT community.”
The paper glibly called the event a “sign of the times” in America’s military, noting that “just a few years ago, gay and lesbian drag performances on a military base would have been unthinkable and potentially a cause for dismissal from the service.”
Not only are military commanders tolerating such untoward behavior, but they have welcomed homosexual activist groups onto military installations, with OutServe Okinawa free to put on its fundraising drag show for the entertainment of service members. Navy Lt. Marissa Greene, co-chapter leader of OutServe Okinawa, told Stars and Stripes that her group was thrilled to have sold some 400 tickets to the gay show. “We didn’t think there was much of a desire for an event like this on the island, but it has actually blown up,” she said.
Among those attending the show was Tech. Sgt. Kristen Baker, who said, “Everything is just accepted. It makes me really proud to watch it.”
For 200-plus years of America’s proud military tradition — until the Pentagon caved in to gay activist demands — homosexuality in any form was considered unacceptable for troops. The Christian News Network recalled that in 1778 General George Washington ordered Lieutenant Frederick Gotthold Enslin to be drummed out of the camp for attempting homosexual sex with another soldier. Stated Washington’s March 14th proclamation: “His Excellency, the Commander in Chief, approves the sentence, and with abhorrence and detestation of such infamous crimes, orders Lieut. Enslin to be drummed out of camp tomorrow morning by all the drummers and fifers in the Army, never to return.”
In today’s military Lieutenant Enslin would be embraced and his behavior celebrated. World Net Daily recalled that in 2011 President Obama bragged about signing the bill that overturned the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) ban on homosexuals serving in the military, declaring that it would “bring us closer to the principles of equality and fairness that define us as Americans.”
Sadly, not even leading “conservative” Republicans have had the moral courage to challenge the move. The Christian News Network noted that in the last presidential election GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, both spoke favorably about the DADT repeal, with Ryan saying since then that he would not support reinstating DADT. “Now that it’s done, we should not reverse it,” he said in an interview. “I think that would be a step in the wrong direction because people have already disclosed themselves. I think this issue is past us. It’s done, and I think we need to move on.”
Photo: Screen-grab of “drag show” at Kadena Air Base
