“It is unclear to us as veterans how an exercise regarding preferred pronouns pertains to sexual assault prevention in the military or service academies.” That’s from a letter Rep. Mike Walz (R-Fla.) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) sent to West Point military academy demanding answers on why cadets were made to participate in a role-play session about “respecting the pronouns people prefer.” It’s too bad they weren’t teaching such useful skills in the times of U.S. Grant or George Patton — misgendering was probably a big obstacle to Grant’s and Patton’s victories, right?
Fox News reported on March 22 that it had exclusively obtained a copy of Walz and Banks’s letter to West Point Superintendent Lt. Gen. Steve Gilland. Fox Digital also obtained a copy of the leaked West Point “facilitator guide” with the “It’s Not That Complicated” exercise on “Understanding and respecting the pronouns people prefer.”
According to the congressmen’s letter, the exercises in the facilitator guide were “mandatory for all cadets, led by cadets, and supervised by faculty.” That echo you hear is the Chinese and Russians laughing at the U.S. military.
The “Dean’s Weekend” West Point exercise certainly “distracts” from important military training, as Banks and Walz put it. The “facilitator guide” says that the exercises supposedly develop “bystander intervention skills” and tells the “Faculty Observor” to step in if words become “rude/mean-spirited.” Because in combat, avoiding mean words is definitely a vitally important skill. From the role-play in question:
[Characters:]
- CDT [Cadet] Baker- Has friend who prefers gender neutral pronouns
- CDT Acevedo- A friend supportive of respecting pronouns
- CDT Adams- Instigator, thinks that using “correct” pronouns is wrong
- CDT Cruz- Argumentative, agrees with Adams –pronouns are weird…
It’s dinner at Grant, and the four cadets are sitting at a table. CDT Baker gets a phone call from a friend and takes the call. CDT Baker messes up the way he refers to his friend on the phone and it becomes apparent that the friend is identifying as gender neutral. CDT Adams and CDT Cruz start joking about it. CDT Acevedo squashes the joking and/or tries to educate them…
The facilitator will stop the role play when one of the following occurs.
- The arguing gets heated and clearly nobody is going to change their mind
- One of the Cadets storms off because they can’t handle the interaction
- The Cadets agree to change the subject, respect Baker’s opinion and let it go.
Walz and Banks quoted from the guide that the Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (DoD SAPRO) “has mandated that USMA assess the effectiveness of our prevention programming;” hence the role-plays. The congressmen called out a “pattern of disturbing developments out of West Point and other service academies” as this “exercise represents yet another instance of West Point leadership implementing policies and directives that encourage cadets to focus on their differences rather than subordinate them to collectively accomplish the overall mission and purpose.” Banks and Walz further insisted “these kinds of exercises distract from the core mission of West Point in developing future wartime officers and further erodes trust in our military.”
Another role-play in the guide, called “Dirty Money,” was about “sextortion.”
Banks and Walz asked Gilland various questions in their letter, Fox noted, including, “whether Critical Race Theory is still included in a course syllabus at the academy.”
The congressmen further pointed out in their letter a 2021 guest lecture at West Point with a slide “Understanding Your Whiteness and White Rage,” from Emory University‘s Dr. Carol Anderson.
”Over the last two years we’ve seen a disturbing trend taking place at our military academies that puts politics over service,” Waltz told Fox News. “We have an obligation to ensure military academies such as West Point are prioritizing the education and training of future military officers rather than implementing the political priorities of the Biden Administration. Every minute our soldiers spend in sensitivity training is a minute they could be at the rifle range. Chinese and Russian soldiers certainly won’t be focused on what pronoun a U.S. soldier uses.”
Banks agreed, “This exemplifies how divisive and radical left-wing ideologies are creeping into our service academies at the expense of consensus and reasonable goals.”
West Point has also come under fire in the past year for its draconian COVID-19 vaccination policy, including giving unvaccinated cadets 10 hours to agree to get the vaccine or face punishment and possible expulsion just before Veterans’ Day 2022. Walz and Banks aren’t the only ones worried about the academies, either — Armed Forces Press is hosting a live-streamed event this week that discusses gender and critical race theory ideology in the U.S. military, including the academies.
West Point certainly needs to sort out its priorities.
PJ Media has consistently called out woke and unfair policies at West Point. Consider subscribing to a PJ Media newsletter to stay up to date on important news!
Read Walz and Banks’ letter here:
Waltz Banks West Point Letter Pronoun Role Play Exercises by PJ Media on Scribd
Read the “facilitator guide” here:
West Point Cadet Roleplay Facilitator Guide by PJ Media on Scribd
Join the conversation as a VIP Member