Earlier this month, Netflix released its new TV show ‘Boots’, starring ‘13 Reasons Why’ actor Miles Heizer and veteran Hollywood actress Vera Farmiga.
The series follows the story of Cameron, a gay teenager who, right after graduating from high school, decides to join the army.
The show was well received by critics and watchers alike, but it was harshly criticised by the Pentagon, which defined it as “woke garbage” in a statement released on Tuesday.
Restoring ‘the warrior ethos’
This week, the Pentagon has reacted to the release of the show and sternly criticised Netflix.
Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said: “Under President Trump and Secretary [Pete] Hegseth, the US military is getting back to restoring the warrior ethos.
“Our standards across the board are elite, uniform, and sex neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man, a woman, gay, or straight.”
Officials “will not compromise our standards to satisfy an ideological agenda, unlike Netflix, whose leadership consistently produces and feeds woke garbage to their audience and children,” he added.
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‘The Pink Marine’
“Boots” is inspired by “The Pink Marine”, a 2015 memoir by author and ex-Marine Greg Cope White.
Then-18-year-old Cope White joined the Marines in 1979 and lied about being gay.
At the time, being gay and serving in the military was illegal.
‘Boots’ is set in 1990, but the situation was not very different, and its main character also lies about being gay when he gets recruited at the beginning of the show.
Just a few years later, the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy was introduced in the US Army.
It allowed individuals belonging to the LGBTQ+ community to serve in the army as long as they did not reveal their sexual orientation.
The policy also inevitably prevented soldiers from being open about their sexuality.
It was abrogated in 2011, during Barack Obama’s administration.
The Trump administration, on the other hand, has notably been critical of gay troops serving in the military.
Last year, Trump’s Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth, defined the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy as “the beginning of the tinkering of the military for social justice.”
In his 2024 book ‘The War on Warriors’, Hegseth defined the policy and its revocation as a “gateway” for further cultural changes that have hindered military aptness.
In June, Hegseth had also announced that a navy vessel originally named in honour of gay activist (and ex army officer) Harvey Milk had been renamed.
“We are taking the politics out of ship naming,” he said at the time.
Earlier in the year, the Trump administration had also attempted to remove transgender people from the army.
Speaking to The New Yorker, Cope White commented on the choice: “It’s scandalous. They’ve served their country for twenty years and suddenly they’re worthless and denied pensions.”
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Adam Peaker 
Newsjustnews writers 
Carmela Calling