The Pentagon has canceled the “family-friendly” drag show that was scheduled to be held at the Nevada Air Force base on Thursday, deciding that this event is “not a suitable use” of federal funds and resources.
The drag show at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada was scheduled to take place June 1 to kick off Pride Month. According to a flyer for the event, it was going to feature three drag queens from Las Vegas: Lawanda Jackson, CoCo Montrese, and Carnie Asada.
During a Congressional hearing in March, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fl.) questioned Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mike Milley about whether he was aware of the all-ages drag queen shows being held at U.S. military bases.
Milley grew visibly angry and claimed that he was not aware of such events taking place on military bases and said that, if they were, he was opposed to them.
The general even asked to examine the flyers advertising the drag events that Gaetz had brought with him.
“I’d like to take a look at those, because I don’t agree with those,” Milley said.
Shortly after this hearing, the Department of Defense ordered that the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada either cancel the drag performance it had planned or move the location of the event off military grounds.
The Nellis drag show was canceled on Wednesday. The order to cancel the drag event reportedly came from General Milley and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said, “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.”
“As Secretary Austin has said, 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,” said Singh.
An Air Force official echoed this statement, telling NBC News, “Consistent with Secretary Austin’s congressional testimony, 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.”
