1. United States
2. Miss.
3. Letter

I am a military service member and served as a Sexual Assault Prevention & Response Victim's Advocate as a collateral duty. I'm reaching out because the Command-Managed Equal Opportunity (CMEO) program has been eradicated in the military, along with required Sexual Assault Training. Sexual assault has nothing to do with DEI. This is absolutely unacceptable. Removal of crucial programs that protect primarily women (but also men) appears to be a covert way of pushing women out of the military or preventing them from participating in combat roles alongside their male peers. As someone who served on a destroyer in the eastern Mediterranean when the war in Israel kicked off in October 2023. I do not appreciate the eradication of crucial programs designed to protect service members, especially women, from violence and retaliation from their commands for reporting violence. These programs are crucial in retaining women in the military. Furthermore, I have an ongoing CMEO case currently under review. What will happen to my case? Will my case now get dropped because CMEO has been dismantled? I have been waiting for 2 years to get a resolution on this case, and now I have nothing--no closure, no justice. Not all situations fall under the UCMJ or warrant Captain's Mast. My case is one of those situations but still requires accountability, fairness, and justice. The Trump administration and Pete Hegseth have failed to account for offenses not fully covered by the UCMJ. I do not appreciate our administration's lack of support for our service members, and I do not appreciate your double-speak--that you want to protect women yet seem to be supporting executive orders that directly harm them. Instead of bullying trans women (who by the way are almost 3 times more likely to experience violence than cisgender people), maybe you should actually help women by supporting Equal Opportunity programs that address discrimination, violence, hazing, bullying, and other crimes often experienced by women in the military. Without us, we'd have a barren, under-manned, and flaccid military. The Trump administration will not send us back to the kitchen, and I will not allow my country to ignore the long history of women participating in America's military and dying for their nation. Fight the Trump administration's unconstitutional executive orders that dismantle the programs I listed above. Have some courage.