The U.S. Army Women’s Museum at Fort Gregg-Adams is officially removing and replacing an exhibit recognizing transgender soldiers’ contributions to the Army after first covering up the display last month.
The museum received the order to remove the display from the Center of Military History in February. This decision came in the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive order on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), which instructed all U.S. agencies and departments to “take down all outward-facing media that inculcate or promote gender ideology.”
While the entire museum is dedicated to honoring women’s contributions to the Army, only the exhibits recognizing transgender soldiers will be affected by the executive order, museum spokesperson F. Lee Reynolds told The Progress-Index.
He added that the museum is also removing an exhibit on the Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP), but said that — unlike the display recognizing transgender soldiers — this was not due to the executive order.
“Exhibits frequently get updated and changed,” Reynolds said.
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The exhibits will be replaced with displays on the Army’s COVID-19 response, and Army Olympians and Paralympians who received medals in 2024. Both displays are still under production.
On Feb. 28, the museum also posted to its Facebook account stating that the content on its Facebook page was being “reviewed and removed as needed to align with the President’s executive orders and DoD priorities.”
Social-media outrage over removal
Several commenters on the post expressed anger and anxiety about what they described as a blatant censorship of history. “This is BS! It’s the Army Women’s Museum so what are you reviewing,” one user asked. “Are you going to get rid of any and everything that has People of Color attached to it?”“DOD was told to go and erase any social media post that feature accomplishments of any DEI groups…women, black people, natives etc,” another user commented. “I’m so grateful my service MEANT NOTHING.”
An additional user commented a graphic that read: “The war on DEI is just a rebranded war on the civil rights movement. Same arguments. Same players. Same goals!”“I’m surprised that they’re not getting rid of this museum. We are going back to the 19th century,” another commenter stated.
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Transgender policy has flipped with White House changes
The question of transgender military service has been a topic of political debate for the past several years.
In 2016, President Barack Obama, a Democrat, agreed to allow transgender persons to enlist. Two years later in the midst of Trump’s first term, the Republican president banned them from serving.
In 2021, President Joe Biden, formerly Obama’s vice president, reversed the ban.
Upon regaining the White House in January, Trump used an executive order to reinstate the transgender ban. Last month, the administration sent an additional memo to the Defense Department ordering the Army to “establish procedures and implement steps to identify” all transgender soldiers by March 26 and begin removing them from service by late April.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Fort Gregg-Adams museum removes display honoring transgender soldiers
