Republican Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida made a fool out of the head of the United States Air Force Academy.
Gaetz in a House hearing on the topic of race and gender-based admissions at military colleges, quizzed Lt. Gen. Richard Clark on several âgender identity terms.â
Gaetz asked Gen. Clark âYouâre literally pushing a program in the academies that says, âIf youâre a cisgender woman, a transgender woman, a non-binary, agender, bigender, two-spirit, demigenderâŚâ Whatâs âdemigenderâ?â
Gen. Clark tried to sidestep the question by responding âSir, thatâs a term of the people that are eligible for that particular scholarship, that is available to.â
Rep. Gaetz then pushed Gen. Clark to answer the question directly to which Clark admitted he wasnât really sure what the termed meant.
Check out what Fox News reported:
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., stumped the head of the Air Force Academy on Wednesday during a tense hearing about race and gender-based admissions practices at military colleges and universities.
Lt. Gen. Richard M. Clark was unable to define gender identity terms like âagenderâ and âdemigenderâ that were listed in eligibility guidelines for a fellowship thatâs open to Air Force cadets and other Americans, something Gaetz noted during their heated exchange.
âYouâre literally pushing a program in the academies that says, âIf youâre a cisgender woman, a transgender woman, a non-binary, agender, bigender, two-spirit, demigenderâŚâ Whatâs âdemigenderâ?â Gaetz asked.
âSir, thatâs a term of the people that are eligible for that particular scholarship, that is available to,â Clarke said.
âItâs a person who looks at their gender in a different way than I do, sir,â Clarke said when the congressman cut him off to further question him.
âWell, sure. Thatâs all of these people. Youâre a cisgender man, you donât even get to apply. Do you know what âdemigenderâ really means?â Gaetz asked.
âIâm not really sure, sir,â Clark said. Gaetz then asked if he knew what âagenderâ meant, and the general again said he didnât know.
Rep. Gaetz Office released a transcript of the entire exchange, read it here:
Rep. Gaetz: A diverse and inclusive force is a warfighting imperative. This is on a slide at the Air Force Academy General Clark, do you agree with that statement?
Lt. Gen.Clark: I do agree with that statement, sir.
Rep. Gaetz: So I mean, were the Mongols diverse?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Well, sir, Iâm not really as versed on Mongol warfighting is.
Rep. Gaetz: How about the war fighting? Were the Vikings diverse?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Again, sir, Iâm looking at our country, the most diverse country in the world
Rep. Gaetz: sure. But this is about a warfighting imperative. How about the fight the force in Ukraine? Are the Ukrainians fighting the Russians a diverse force?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Sir, once again, my concern is the people that Iâm charged to build into leaders.
Advertisement
Rep. Gaetz: Right. But you would you would acknowledge that throughout history, including present history, that statement hasnât born true in every example. Right?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Sir what I would say is that those countries have to rely on the full force of their population, to build a war fighting to win our wars. And thatâs why itâs important for us to be diverse, because nation.
Rep. Gaetz: Letâs look at the population that actually makes up the fighting force frequently. Now we have more men and women, right? 70-30 ish.
Lt. Gen.Clark: Thatâs correct.
Rep. Gaetz: And of the men we have, most of them are not transgender men. Most of them are cisgender men, right?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Yes, sir.
Rep. Gaetz: But yet, at our academies, we put push something called the Brooke Owens fellowship. Are you familiar with that?
Lt. Gen.Clark: I am. Yes, sir.
Rep. Gaetz: And in that fellowship, it specifically says, If you are a cisgender, man, this program isnât for you. So you just said that your answer on why we why we do such this, this full hug of these diversity concepts is because itâs all about the fighting force that we draw from, but youâre literally pushing a program in the academies that says, if youâre a cisgender woman, a transgender woman, a non binary, agender, bi gender, 2 spirit, Demi gender, whatâs Demi gender?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Sir, thatâs a thatâs a term of the people that are eligible for that particular scholarship
Rep. Gaetz: But whatâs a Demi gender person?
Advertisement
Lt. Gen.Clark: Itâs a person who looks at their gender in a in a different, a different way than I do, sir.
Rep. Gaetz: Well, sure. Thatâs all of these people. Youâre a cisgender. Man, you donât even get to apply.
Lt. Gen.Clark: Well
Rep. Gaetz: Do you know what Demi gender really means?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Iâm not really sure, sir.
Rep. Gaetz: Right. So do you know what agender means? All one word, not a space gender. But agender?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Sir, I donât.
Rep. Gaetz: Right. So here we are pushing a fellowship, calling for people that you donât even know what the words mean. And the number one group of people, the cisgender men are excluded? Not in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion. Should we be pushing programs that we canât define that exclude the largest group of servicemembers?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Well, sir, first, that program is not an Air Force Academy program. Itâs a program open to our entire country.
Rep. Gaetz: Right. We allow guys advocate for within the academy.
Advertisement
Lt. Gen.Clark: We allow our cadets to apply for it.
Rep. Gaetz: Why are you allowing your cadets to apply for a program when you cannot define the basic terms of eligibility?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Because itâs an opportunity for us to develop them as warfighters. And we look for every opportunity that we can
Rep. Gaetz: But you donât even know what the words mean, how can you use this as a way to develop the warfighters? If you donât know what it means?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Well, some of those could those terms may not be applicable to us at the Air Force Academy, but some are
Rep. Gaetz: But if you donât know what they mean, itâs hard to tell if theyâre applicable or not. So I think one of the reasons why some of this stuff has gotten into the academies is because we donât have the same oversight from the Board of Visitors and Mr. Chairman, I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record. An article from The Washington Examiner entitled to push woke ideology Biden illegally gutted Military Academy oversight boards. And so in this piece, it goes through a timeline. Weâre on September 8, 2021, all of President Trumpâs appointees were fired on September 17, Secretary Austin created Board of Visitors subcommittees, and then he populated those subcommittees with people who werenât on the Board of Visitors. Have you ever seen that happen before?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Sir, our Board of Visitors is populated and and supports us in great fashion.
Rep. Gaetz: Right. What about the subcommittee? Are there people on the board of visitors subcommittees who are not on the Board of Visitors?
Lt. Gen.Clark: I canât answer that, sir.
Rep. Gaetz: Seems like something we ought to know.
Lt. Gen.Clark: Um, yes, sir. Iâm not sure right.
Rep. Gaetz: But that would be odd. Right? I mean, here. Iâll let me ask the question this way. You donât have any basis to disagree with the reporting here in the Washington Examiner that literally we have people who are not on the board of visitors who are serving on the subcommitteeâs you have no basis to disagree with that, do you?
Lt. Gen.Clark: Sir, Iâm not exactly sure the question youâre answering asking. Iâll have to take that for record so I can understand exactly what youâre asking.