Sometimes the best intentions lead to some silly decisions.
Consider the Pentagon’s war on diversity, equity and inclusion. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is on a crusade to delete all DEI content from media and digital platforms controlled by the military.
In other words, no more photos of drag queens on battleships. No more critical race theory messages and no more pride flags.
The Associated Press reports that some 26,000 images have been flagged and that number could reach 100,000.
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But the Pentagon needs to do a better job at context.
Among the photos marked for deletion is an image of Colonel Paul Tibbets, Jr. He’s the pilot of the B-29 bomber that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Col. Tibbetts was posted in front of the plane which was named after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets.
Additional “gay” imagery flagged included service members who have the last name Gay, with the name visible on their uniform.
“We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms,” the Pentagon said in a statement to AP. “In the rare cases that content is removed that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct components accordingly,”
For the record, Mrs. Tibbets was not a lesbian.