FIRST ON FOX: Retired Marine Col. Mitchell Swan, a Republican candidate for Georgia‘s 10th Congressional District, released a video ad Tuesday opposing President Biden’s “woke” focus in the military amid Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The biggest European land war since World War II, and where is our military focused: Gender dysphoria and woke training,” Swan says in the video, first provided to Fox News Digital. “THIS IS INSANE!”
“Putin’s reviewing nuclear options while we assess transgender therapy options,” the retired Marine colonel adds. “As a retired colonel who led Marines overseas, I know that this woke indoctrination will destroy our military, and that’s why I oppose transgenders in our ranks.”
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He concluded the ad by pledging to “fight woke policies on every front” if he wins the election.
“Compulsory DOD ‘Diversity and Inclusion Training’ has become a tool of LGBTQ supporters to normalize sodomy, sinful behavior, and transgender lifestyles throughout our Armed Forces, while also waging a culture war on those traditional Christian family values many service members were raised upon,” Swan said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “This tears at the moral fabric and cohesion of our military forces.”
“Furthermore, it erodes combat readiness and desecrates over 200 years of American military culture,” he added. “A strong military is essential to preventing escalating situations like Ukraine and Afghanistan. Allowing transgender individuals to serve sends a message to our adversaries that we are more focused on social experimentation than on the defense of our nation.”
Swan retired as a colonel after 30 years of service in the United States Marine Corps and Marine Corps Reserve. He led Marines overseas, helped direct operations in the Pacific, and shaped U.S. policy in the Middle East, according to his campaign.
The candidate has urged the U.S. military to reverse its policy embracing transgender identity, warning that welcoming individuals with gender dysphoria into the ranks may weaken military performance and sends a message of weakness to America’s adversaries in crises such as Ukraine and Afghanistan.
In previous comments to Fox News Digital, Swan noted that “serving in the military is not a right,” so the military holds “strict ‘selective service’ standards.”
“In fact, many individuals with certain conditions, such as bedwetting and sleepwalking are disqualified from military service,” he noted. “They are not disqualified because they are bad people, but because these symptoms are considered mental and emotional issues that are not conducive to combat environments. Gender dysphoria is no different and should be treated the same; that it is not conducive to enhancing military performance or unit morale.”
Former President Obama allowed troops who identify as transgender to serve in the military according to their self-identified gender. Former President Trump reversed this policy, requiring troops to serve “in their biological sex,” while allowing transgender troops who joined under Obama to remain in their positions. The Trump DOD policy excluded people with “psychosexual conditions” such as “transsexualism, exhibitionism, transvestism, voyeurism.”
Biden reversed Trump’s policy, returning to the Obama policy.
