The Pentagon has had a meltdown at Netflix after it released a show about a closeted gay teenager who enlists in the military.
Boots, a coming-of-age comedy drama adapted from former U.S. Marine Greg Cope White’s memoir The Pink Marine, follows 18-year-old Cameron Cope (played by Miles Heizer) as he joins the Marines alongside his best friend, Ray McAffey (Liam Oh). The Netflix series is set in the 1990s during a period when gay people were banned from serving in the armed forces, just before the introduction of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
When approached by Entertainment Weekly for comment about the military-based show with pro-LGBTQ themes, a spokesperson for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled the Netflix as “woke garbage.”
“Under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, the U.S. military is getting back to restoring the warrior ethos. Our standards across the board are elite, uniform, and sex-neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man, a woman, gay, or straight,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told EW.
Wilson added that officials “will not compromise our standards to satisfy an ideological agenda, unlike Netflix, whose leadership consistently produces and feeds woke garbage to their audience and children.”
A Department of Defense spokesperson reiterated to the Daily Beast that the statement was an attack directed at Netflix as a company, not the series.
The Pentagon criticism of the streaming service comes as MAGA has voiced increasing outrage over Netflix’s allegedly “woke” shows for children, including the long-canceled animated show Dead End Paranormal Park.
Boots premiered shortly after Hegseth, a former Fox News host, delivered an unhinged speech to a room full of unenthused generals and military leaders, railing against what he decried as the “woke” decay of the U.S. military.
Hegseth also issued a series of directives seemingly targeting everyone from transgender people to those who cannot meet “male-level” physical fitness standards.
“No more identity months, DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] offices, dudes in dresses,” Hegseth declared during his Sept. 30 speech. “No more climate change worship, no more division, distraction, or gender delusions. No more debris.
“As I’ve said before, and will say again, we are done with that s–t.”
The Trump administration has also rolled back on other LGBTQ military policies, including banning transgender people from serving in the armed forced and removing the name of assassinated gay rights icon Harvey Milk from a Navy ship.
Since its Oct. 9 release, Boots has received praise from critics. USA Today called it “one of the best new series Netflix has produced in years,” while Variety described it as “a delightful, heartfelt watch.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Netflix for comment.
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