While giving a televised speech to U.S. military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia on Tuesday, Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, denounced past military leadership for being too “woke,” citing DEI and LGBTQ groups in the Department of Defense.

The 45-minute speech, delivered to an unprecedented number of U.S. military leaders called in from around the world, emphasized “warrior ethos” and decried what Hegseth described as “decades of decay” within the military.

“This administration has done a great deal from day one to remove the social justice, politically correct, and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department,” Hegseth told the silent crowd. “No more identity months, DEI Offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship, no more division, distraction, or gender delusions… We are done with that shit.”

The former “Fox & Friends” weekend co-host continued to make digs at inclusive measures the military—and the federal government—first widely implemented in the 1990s to comply with federal legislation, specifically the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“For too long we have promoted too many leaders for the wrong reasons, based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called ‘firsts,’” he said, despite no proof that the military has been more lenient with minority applicants. “They had to put out dizzying DEI and LGBTQ+ statements. We were told females and males were the same thing. Or that males who think they are females are totally normal."

“An entire generation of generals and admirals were told that they must parrot the insane fallacy that ‘our diversity is our strength,’” Hegseth continued. “We know our unity is our strength.”

One theme Hegseth returned to throughout his speech was his mission of “clearing out the debris” within the military—highlighting how he fired a number of high-ranking officials in the department. “We became the Woke Department… The leaders who created the woke department have already driven out too many hard chargers.”

“It is nearly impossible to change a culture with the same people who helped create, or even benefited from that culture,” he said. “Underneath the ‘woke’ garbage is a deeper problem, a more important problem that we are fixing fast.”

Hegseth also repeatedly described himself as the “Secretary of War,” and the Department of Defense as the “Department of War.” Not only is that inaccurate—it would require congressional approval to change the department’s name and roles—but it also underscored his aggressive stance on international conflict. He went as far as to say, “From this moment forward, the only mission of the newly restored Department of War is this: Warfighting.”

“My job has been to determine which leaders did what they must to answer to the prerogatives of civilian leadership, and which leaders are truly invested in the woke department—and incapable of embracing the War department,” he said. “We are in the profession of arms.” Later telling the military leaders “If you disagree, you should do the honorable thing and resign.”

Hegseth also mentioned two tests he is pushing throughout the military structure: the “1990 test” and the “E6 test.” The 1990 test compares current standards to those of 1990, with any superior past standards to be reinstated. The E6 test requires changes to either complicate or empower leadership at the staff sergeant and petty officer level. If the changes complicate, they are removed.

He argued this would make the military “apolitical, faithful to their oath, and the Constitution,” while also invoking God and religion multiple times—despite the Constitution’s explicit separation of church and state.

Hegseth also took aim at current standards within the military, saying that if women could not meet them, they would be turned away from service because “it is what it is.”

“Today, at my direction, this is the first of 10 Department of War directives that are arriving at your commands and inbox… will ensure that every requirement for every combat MOS… returns to the highest MALE standard only.

“This is not about preventing women from serving… but when it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral. If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is.”

“Real toxic leadership is promoting destructive ideologies that are anathema to the Constitution, the laws of nature, and nature’s God,” he said.

According to Social Work Today, a trade publication that works toward being “an essential resource for social work professionals” found that “79,000 LGBTQ+ service members are serving in the diverse branches of the US armed forces, and an additional 1 million LGBTQ+ individuals are identified as veterans.”

Washington Blade courtesy of the National LGBTQ Media Association.