WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08) and Representative Chrissy Houlahan (PA-06) led 24 Congressional colleagues in a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth demanding the Department of Defense (DoD) reverse course on a new, politically motivated purge of books, learning materials and curriculum in the military school system.
The letter follows reports that the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), the administrative authority overseeing all DoD schools, restricted access to library books, learning resources and materials deemed to contain “discriminatory equity ideology” or “gender ideology,” terms lacking any precise definition and associated with polemical right-wing partisan politics.
“Our nation’s military schools should be defending, not suppressing, our students’ freedom to think, read, analyze and write independently,” wrote the lawmakers.
They continued, “We ask that you immediately restore full access to the books and learning materials that you have restricted in DoDEA school libraries and stop any ongoing ‘reviews’ into any other learning materials or school activities that you believe are ‘potentially related to gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology topics,’ or any other ‘politically incorrect’ ideology. We ask that you uphold DoDEA’s commitment to ‘educate, engage, and empower military-connected students,’ regardless of their gender identity, sexual orientation, race, immigration background or religion, and allow their children access to literature and ideas that are as wide-open and robust as our First Amendment so they can continue learning and growing to become independent citizens and critical thinkers in the world’s greatest pluralistic democracy.”
Books reportedly targeted by DoDEA include No Truth Without Ruth, a picture book about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Hillbilly Elegy, the memoir by Vice President JD Vance. DoDEA provided no explanations as to why those books, or any other materials, were flagged beyond the Trump Administration’s sweeping executive orders on DEI.
DoDEA operates 161 accredited schools and serves more than 67,000 children of active-duty military and DoD civilian families from pre-kindergarten until 12th grade.
Co-signers of the letter include Representatives Suzanne Bonamici, Julia Brownley, Sean Casten, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Judy Chu, Gilbert Cisneros, Gerald Connolly, Madeleine Dean, Lloyd Doggett, Al Green, Jared Huffman, Glenn Ivey, Henry Johnson, Ro Khanna, Rick Larsen, Teresa Leger Fernandez, Jennifer McClellan, Jerrold Nadler, Eleanor Norton, Linda Sánchez, Marilyn Strickland, Mark Takano, Nydia Velázquez, and Nikema Williams.
The text of the letter is available here and below.
March 17, 2025
The Honorable Pete Hegseth
Secretary of Defense
U.S. Department of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000
CC:
Dr. Beth Schiavino-Narvaez
Director
Department of Defense Education Activity
4800 Mark Center Drive
Alexandria, VA 22350-1400
Mr. Darin Selnick
Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness
U.S. Department of Defense
4000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-4000
Dear Secretary Hegseth,
We write to express our grave concern about the escalating censorship in schools run by the Department of Defense (DoD). We demand that you immediately restore all learning materials and books that have been stripped from the shelves and classrooms run by the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA). Restricting access to these materials because of their “potential” relation to “gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology topics” is naked censorship completely at odds with the Trump Administration’s own professed devotion to free speech.1 You are clearly violating the First Amendment rights of DoD families.
DoDEA operates 161 accredited schools and serves more than 67,000 children of active-duty military and DoD civilian families. These schools provide a world-class education and, by most metrics, exceed all other American public-school systems.2 An essential element of this exceptional education has been the fostering of critical thinking skills to “create knowledgeable and engaged citizens who are prepared to participate in democratic society in a global world.”3
The First Amendment, of course, protects your right to disagree with what you describe as "gender ideology” and “discriminatory equity ideology,” two ideologies which seem to be mostly imaginary. As a citizen, you can be for or against MAGA ideology, liberalism, conservatism, techno-libertarianism, critical race theory, Chicago School Economics, queer theory, illiberal democracy, or Christian dominionism.
What the First Amendment does not protect are attempts by whichever presidential administration happens to be in power to censor viewpoints they disagree with. The First Amendment absolutely forbids political “viewpoint discrimination” by government in speech forums and educational contexts. The Supreme Court has struck down the removal of books deemed politically incorrect from school libraries.4 Our service members risk their lives to protect the constitutional rights of every American. They and their families deserve to exercise the same rights they are working to protect.
We are alarmed by reports that children at DoD schools were prevented from accessing any library books and certain learning materials for a week while officials conducted a “review” to identify any books that are potentially related to the mysterious bodies of thought you call “discriminatory equity ideology” or “gender ideology.” When one military family stationed overseas saw a school official at a DoDEA-operated school removing not just books but posters of Susan B. Anthony and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., they asked why the poster of Leonardo da Vinci was not being taken down. They were told that da Vinci was “a real historical figure.” Classifying Susan B. Anthony and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as not “real historical figures” calls into question basic critical thinking skills and how the brave new DoDEA curriculum will accurately teach American history.
After this week-long review, the nation’s military schools began purging library books and restricting access to books and learning materials that are reportedly undergoing “further review.”5 Among the books and learning materials that have reportedly been purged are a picture book about Ruth Bader Ginsburg titled No Truth Without Ruth, a single chapter on “sexuality and gender” used in Advanced Placement psychology, a reading of “A Nation of Immigrants” in a social studies lesson for fourth-graders, a story about a girl who dislikes her freckles but eventually learns to love them titled Freckleface Strawberry, and a book about transgender actor and activist Nicole Maines titled Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family.6 Vice President JD Vance’s book Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis was also targeted for “compliance review” although, as with all the others, it is not entirely clear why.
These Orwellian book purges seriously restrict the spectrum of knowledge and literature available to military families. The stories DoDEA seeks to silence—including the story of our nation’s current Vice President—are the diverse and complex stories of the history and culture of the people of our country. You have no right to erase them.
Our nation’s military schools should be defending, not suppressing, our students’ freedom to think, read, analyze and write independently. And at a time when many transgender youth, children of immigrants, and children from diverse racial backgrounds—all of whom attend DoDEA schools—face relentless bullying and feel isolated and afraid, we are disturbed by the consequences of your attempts to censor books that may resonate with their identities, experiences and contributions to the United States.
We ask that you immediately restore full access to the books and learning materials that you have restricted in DoDEA school libraries and stop any ongoing “reviews” into any other learning materials or school activities that you believe are “potentially related to gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology topics,” or any other “politically incorrect” ideology. We ask that you uphold DoDEA’s commitment to “educate, engage, and empower military-connected students,” regardless of their gender identity, sexual orientation, race, immigration background or religion, and allow their children access to literature and ideas that are as wide-open and robust as our First Amendment so they can continue learning and growing to become independent citizens and critical thinkers in the world’s greatest pluralistic democracy.
Very truly yours,
Jamie Raskin, Chrissy Houlahan, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Lloyd Doggett, Nikema Williams, Mark Takano, Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, Jr., Nydia M. Velázquez, Jared Huffman, Suzanne Bonamici, Ro Khanna, Judy Chu, Rick Larsen, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Jennifer L. McClellan, Teresa Leger Fernández, Julia Brownley, Glenn Ivey, Madeleine Dean, Gilbert Ray Cisneros, Jr., Linda T. Sánchez, Jerrold Nadler, Gerald E. Connolly, Al Green, Marilyn Strickland, Sean Casten
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