The Pentagon ordered a Nevada Air Force base to cancel a drag queen show on government grounds just a day before it was set to take place, according to TheBlaze.
Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas was directed to shut down the performance or move it off military grounds, despite the location being used to host previous drag shows.
The “family-friendly” event scheduled for June 1, 2023 — the beginning of “Pride Month” — was promoted as having “no minimum age requirement” with alcohol available to those over 21 years old. It was also labeled as a “free community drag showcase” featuring “RuPaul’s Drag Race” star CoCo Montrese.
“The DOD will not host drag events at U.S. military installations or facilities. Hosting these types of events in federally funded facilities is not a suitable use of DOD resources,” Sabrina Singh, deputy press secretary, confirmed in an email to the New York Post.
“Per DoD Joint Ethics Regulation (JER), certain criteria must be met for persons or organizations acting in non-Federal capacity to use DoD facilities and equipment,” Singh also said, according to NBC News.
Orders for the cancellation came directly from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, the outlet also reported, with Milley reportedly having become visibly angry when he was informed about the event just days before.
“The Air Force will not host drag events at its installations or facilities. Commanders have been directed to either cancel or relocate these events to an off-base location,” an Air Force official told the outlet.
The scheduled Pride Month event was among six drag shows cited in a May 23 letter from Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz to both Millay and Austin to “further highlight the DoD’s pervasive and persistent use of taxpayer dollars for drag events.”
The far right politician said he provided the list in order to aid the Pentagon in “executing the agreed-upon elimination of DoD-funded drag events.”
Gaetz had grilled Millay and Austin two months earlier over whether drag performances and story hours were considered an appropriate use of taxpayer money, which Austin definitively agreed was not.
