Gov’t Accountability Office Says Pentagon Isn’t Woke Enough as Recruiting Languishes

(Corine Gatti, Headline USA) Despite myriad military drag shows and Pride events taking place across the country, the Government Accountability Office said the Department of Defense was not “woke” enough.

A recently released 258-page “diversity audit” from the GAO found that the Pentagon’s top brass failed to promote diversity in its civilian workforce. The review said, the “DOD has shifted in reverse and employs fewer civilian minorities than a decade ago,” the Gateway Pundit reported.

“The DOD has lower percentages of women and members of historically disadvantaged racial or ethnic groups — such as African Americans,” the audit said. “We found that representation of women across the department had not improved. Instead, “it decreased slightly by nearly one percentage point, between fiscal years 2012 and 2021.”

The report found the Pentagon was bound by an executive order signed by President Joe Biden, which mandated greater hiring, support services and benefits for the LGBT community.

The audit looked into civilian minority numbers but didn’t delve into LGBT issues as much as the GOP has done in the past. Critics of the Biden administration have criticized the DOD and the U.S. military for being too woke, which they contend could potentially become a national security concern.

In May, a bill led by Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said that no funds “appropriated or otherwise made available for the Department of Defense and no facilities owned or operated by Department of Defense may be used to host, advertise, or otherwise support an adult cabaret performance,” Fox News Digital reported.

A scheduled drag show to celebrate “Pride” month at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada last month was canceled after Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., publicly decried the event as an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars.

The military has struggled with recruitment, experiencing the worst crisis since transitioning to an all-volunteer force. The Army faced a shortage of 15,000 troops in 2022, News Week reported.