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On the 75th anniversary of the executive order prohibiting segregation in the U.S. armed forces, Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash., on Wednesday introduced a bill to ban discrimination in the U.S. military.
On July 26, 1948 former President Harry Truman, calling for the abolition of discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin in the military, signed Executive order 9981 banning segregation in the armed forces.
Strickland, whose district is located in the Olympia, Washington area, said,
75 yrs since Truman desegregated the military, it's long past time to put equality in the armed forces into law.
The proposed legislation would
ban the Pentagon from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, gender identity or sexual orientation. [Recruits’] eligibility for service could be based only on their ability to meet occupational standards, the bill adds.
In a letter to potential co-sponsors quoted in Military News, an online publication directed at military members, veterans and their families, Strickland wrote,
We have seen over the past several years that some extremist members of the Republican Party are trying to undermine decades of efforts to improve racial equality, address extremism and attract a wider group of recruits.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office notes that in the years since Truman signed Executive Order 9981,
the Department of Defense (DOD) has expressed a commitment to promoting an environment free from discrimination.
But the military still faces a number of challenges in meeting the goals of Truman’s executive order.
It will surprise no one here that among those challenges the military faces are those posed by that party of haters, toddlers masquerading as adults, racists and incels, whose members in the House of Representatives
loaded up their version of the annual defense policy bill with provisions to end Pentagon diversity, equity and inclusion programs; ban gender-affirming health care for transgender troops; and reverse the policy covering leave and travel expenses for service members seeking abortions.
Assuming it continues its halting efforts to diversify and is not overcome by GOP-driven hate, fascism and panic over “wokeness” (a term none of its critics seems able to define), the U.S. military has its work cut out for it. According to the GAO, the student population at the nation’s military academies
doesn’t currently reflect the diversity of the rest of the nation. Non-white cadets accounted for between 36% and 40% of the military service academies’ student body in the fall of 2021. For comparison, the overall U.S. non-white undergraduate college population was 50% in the fall of 2020.
Strickland’s bill would be expected to be similar in effect to a measure introduced earlier this year by California Congress member Sarah Jacobs, whose district is located in San Diego. Dubbed the “Truman Amendment,” bill is focused on banning discrimination against LGBTQ+ service members and preventing reinstatement of any ban on transgender military service. Specifically, the proposal would
specify that standards for service cannot include criteria based on race, color, national origin, religion or sex, including sexual orientation and gender identity.
The messaging around the Strickland bill is broader, Military News notes, adding that both the Strickland and Jabobs bills face the same fate in the current Congress: “languishing in a GOP-controlled House.”