US Navy seeks help from drag queens to meet recruitment goals.

Are you struggling to meet your recruiting goals? Look no further than the U.S. Navy, who have found the perfect person to increase their ranks: Drag Queen Harpy Daniels.

According to a Daily Caller report, the Navy has brought on Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, also known as Harpy Daniels, to be a “Navy Digital Ambassador.” Kelley, an active-duty drag queen who identifies as non-binary, was part of the Digital Ambassador initiative, which aimed to explore the digital environment to reach a wide range of potential candidates for military recruitment.

In November, Kelley announced on Instagram that the Navy had invited him to become the branch’s first “Digital Ambassador.” Kelley highlighted his experience performing in drag for the Navy as early as 2018 and his new role as a “leader” and “advocate” for individuals who were allegedly “oppressed for years in the service.”

The Navy’s Recruiting Shortfalls

The Navy’s use of a drag queen as a “digital ambassador” comes amid the branch’s predicted failure to meet its recruiting targets for the 2023 fiscal year. Last month, The Military Times reported that the U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Army are projecting recruiting shortfalls in the “thousands” this year. While the Navy is estimated to fall roughly 6,000 recruits short of its goal, the Army and Air Force are projected to miss theirs by 10,000 and 3,400, respectively.

The Push for DEI Ideology

Following President Joe Biden’s 2021 inauguration, the Defense Department began pushing military leadership to adopt discriminatory “DEI” ideology. For context, diversity, equity, and inclusion (often abbreviated to DEI) is a divisive and poisonous ideology dismissive of merit to discriminate based on characteristics such as skin color and sexual orientation.

In May 2021, then-Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Harker released a memo outlining an action plan to promote DEI in the Navy. The document instructed the Navy’s assistant secretary and chief diversity officer to “lead and oversee all DEI efforts across the Department to synchronize key policies and initiatives … and to develop a strategy to advance DEI across the enterprise.”

The Defense Department’s embrace of DEI ideology continues to permeate the military. As Helen Raleigh reported in The Federalist last June, the Navy released an instructional video advising service members to create a “safe space” by using “correct” pronouns.

• The video emphasized how service members must use “inclusive languages” and not “misgender” others.
• The Army has also released similar material instructing soldiers on so-called “gender identity.”

Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood