Pentagon Cancels Drag Show at Air Force Base After Republican Criticism

The Defense Department said on Thursday that it would not host drag shows at U.S. military installations after Republican politicians complained about events scheduled on bases to celebrate Pride Month.

Sabrina Singh, deputy press secretary for the department, said in a statement that “drag events” were not a “suitable use” of the department’s resources.

The statement did not say how the Pentagon defines a drag event. Drag shows, which have entered the mainstream in recent years, are often a kind of variety performance in which gender assumptions are challenged through dress and makeup, dance and song.

Under the department’s ethics regulations, Ms. Singh said “certain criteria must be met for persons or organizations acting in nonfederal capacity” to use the department’s facilities and equipment.

“As Secretary Austin has said, the D.O.D. will not host drag events at U.S. military installations or facilities,” Ms. Singh said, referring to the defense secretary, Lloyd J. Austin III. “Hosting these types of events in federally funded facilities is not a suitable use of D.O.D. resources.”

The Defense Department did not specify what was not suitable about drag events compared to other military Pride events, which include speeches, panel discussions and road races.

One of the canceled events was a drag show scheduled for Thursday at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, just northeast of Las Vegas, NBC reported. An ad for the show described it as a “family-friendly” event featuring three performers, including Coco Montrese, a former contestant on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

The base held drag shows in 2021 and 2022. Task & Purpose, an online publication that covers the military and the defense industry, reported that the 2021 show featured Ms. Montrese and other performers who educated attendees about the history and significance of drag in the L.G.B.T.Q. community. The event, the publication reported, was planned by the base’s Pride committee.

Officials at Nellis Air Force Base did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

The Modern Military Association of America, a nonprofit organization that represents L.G.B.T.Q. service members, veterans and allies, said in a statement that drag events on military bases have “become increasingly politicized, stemming from the moral panic that drag may be harmful due to the perception that it is sexual in nature.”

The group said such events are often sponsored by private groups and are not paid for with federal money.

“Ensuring our ranks reflect the diversity of the American people is essential to morale and cohesion,” the group said. “It affects recruiting and retention of service members who do not feel welcome due to their sexual and gender identities.”

The restrictions that the Pentagon announced Thursday come as conservative commentators and Republican politicians are targeting drag shows and library readings, calling the events inappropriate for children. This rhetoric has also spurred protests from far-right groups and threats directed at drag performers, including armed protesters who forced the cancellation of an event at the Museum of Science and History in Memphis in September.

Since early 2022, there have been at least 166 protests, threats and violent actions targeting drag events, according to a report issued in April by GLAAD, an L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy organization.

At a House Armed Services Committee hearing in March, Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, asked military leaders about the Nellis Air Force Base event and other Pride celebrations.

He mentioned a drag queen story hour at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana in 2021 and a drag queen story hour at Ramstein Air Base in Germany planned for Friday, which Military.com reported has since been canceled.

Mr. Austin, the defense secretary, said at the House Armed Services Committee hearing that the Defense Department did not fund drag shows or drag queen story hours.

Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who also testified at the hearing, said that he wanted to “find out what actually is going on there.”

“I’d like to take a look at those, because I don’t agree with those,” he said. “I think those things shouldn’t be happening.”

Last month, Mr. Gaetz sent a letter to Mr. Austin and General Milley asking how federal money was used for drag events and how the events were organized.

There is a long history of drag in the U.S. military.

Photo archives include images of Navy service members in drag in the 1920s and American soldiers performing a drag show in Germany 10 days after the country surrendered to allied forces in World War II.

A touring show called This is The Army featured male service members in drag performing the parts of women as they traveled around the world for what the State Archives of North Carolina describes as the “biggest and best-known morale-boosting show” during World War II. Bob Hope, one of the most famous U.S.O. tour entertainers, performed in television specials in drag, including during the celebration of his 83rd birthday aboard the U.S.S. Lexington.

The historian Allan Bérubé explored the history of drag in the military in a book, “Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War II.” Drag shows, he wrote, were enjoyed by men of all sexual orientations and are credited with providing a safe space for service members who were not straight.

The book describes the delivery of gold lamé dresses to a tiny atoll near New Guinea for a show organized by an Army Air Corpsman, Ben Small.

“Well, here’s everybody in the office from the lieutenant on down trying on dresses!” Mr. Small told the author. “Everybody suddenly becomes a drag queen!”