Connect with us

Military Women’s Groups Push To Pull Limbaugh From Armed Forces Radio

Published

on

At least two military servicewomen’s groups are pushing to have Rush Limbaugh pulled from the military’s radio stations. SWAN, the Service Women’s Action Network, and a group of women veterans operating through Vote Vets are demanding American Forces Network radio drop Limbaugh for his misogynistic attacks against Sandra Fluke, two women journalists, and reproductive rights.

Fortunately, they’re getting some high-level support from Democratic Senator Carl Levin, the Chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, who, as The New Civil Rights Movement reported yesterday, called Limbaugh’s show “offensive” and supports dropping Limbaugh from AFN radio.

“Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN) applauds Senator Carl Levin’s endorsement to remove the Rush Limbaugh show from Armed Forces Radio,” Anu Bhagwati, SWAN Executive Director and a former Marine captain said in a statement to The New Civil Rights Movement. “SWAN urges Secretary of Defense Leon Panatta and General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to join more than 46 advertisers who have pulled their ads from the Rush Limbaugh show. The backlash to Mr. Limbaugh’s regrettable misogynistic name calling of Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student reflects a growing consensus in America that bigotry in any form is not acceptable. Out of respect for service women, SWAN believes Armed Forces Radio should remove the show immediately.”

And The Huffington Post reported this week:

“A group of female military veterans issued a statement on Monday calling for Limbaugh’s show to be pulled from the airwaves of the American Forces Network. AFN is a government-run media service that provides television and radio programming to American service members overseas.

“When many of our female troops use birth control, for Limbaugh to say they are ‘sluts’ and ‘prostitutes’ is beyond the pale,” the women wrote. “It isn’t just disrespectful to our women serving our country, but it’s language that goes against everything that makes our military work.”

The statement was issued through VoteVets, a progressive veterans organization. Miranda Norman, a veteran of the Oklahoma National Guard who now advises VoteVets, told The Huffington Post that the comments were “offensive” to women in the military and “downplays the role that we serve.” She argued that birth control can be vital to women in uniform, saying “women in the military use [contraception] when they’re deployed to make smart decisions for their family, to make smart decisions about being a soldier.”

As The New Civil Rights Movement also mentioned yesterday, we feel there is a clear relationship between the high incidence of rape and sexual trauma in the military, and the hostile environment for women the Rush Limbaugh show breeds and perpetuates. All the more reason to pull Limbaugh from the air.

 

There's a reason 10,000 people subscribe to NCRM. You can get the news before it breaks just by subscribing, plus you can learn something new every day.
Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

News

NYC Officials to Defy Trump Admin Over Pride Flag Removal From Stonewall National Monument

Published

8 hours ago

on

February 10, 2026

By

New York City officials plan to defy the Trump administration after the National Park Service removed the iconic LGBTQ pride flag from the historic Stonewall National Monument, following guidance from the Trump administration. Many consider the Greenwich Village landmark to be the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ civil rights movement, and the backlash to the removal was swift.

Some officials vowed earlier to re-raise the flag on federal property. Those who do so are “setting up a potential fight with the White House,” according to Politico.

Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal told Politico that he and other NYC-area officials will re-raise the flag on Thursday.

“I think it’s important that we speak out and stand up for the community, frankly, just as our forebearers, who exhibited much more courage back in 1969,” Hoylman-Sigal said.

READ MORE: White House Shuts Down Briefing After Declaring Lutnick ‘Very Important’ to Trump’s Team

“This is not a moment for our community to stand by idly as attempts to undermine our history are put forward by Trump and the federal administration,” he added, calling it “another outrage by the Trump administration directed at the LGBTQ community, whether it’s transgender youth or immigrants or queer people in general.”

It’s unknown which other officials plan to be present on Thursday.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul told The Recount, “I believe in peaceful resistance, because we’re not going to be subjugated to someone who thinks he’s a king — and you cannot diminish or undermine an important community to all of us.”

“I’ll do whatever I can,” she added, “if I have to go out there and put my own flag right back up.”

New York City Mayor Kwame Mamdani wrote, “I am outraged by the removal of the Rainbow Pride Flag from Stonewall National Monument. New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history. Our city has a duty not just to honor this legacy, but to live up to it. I will always fight for a New York City that invests in our LGBTQ+ community, defends their dignity, and protects every one of our neighbors—without exception.”

Human Rights Campaign national press secretary Brandon Wolf told CBS News, “Bad news for the Trump administration: these colors don’t run.”

READ MORE: Carville Predicts Trump Will Get a Complete and Total ‘Whipping’

“The Stonewall Inn & Visitors Centers are still privately owned, their flags are still flying high, and that community is still just as queer today as it was yesterday. While their policy agenda throws the country into chaos, the Trump administration is obsessed with trying to suffocate the joy and pride that Americans have for their communities,” Wolf said.

“For over a year, they’ve been on a witch hunt, targeting rainbow crosswalks, pride flags, Black Lives Matter murals, and throwing a tantrum about a Super Bowl performance they couldn’t control. But they will fail. We will keep showing up at Stonewall, for each other, and being out and proud. There’s nothing the White House can do about that,” he added.

READ MORE: Fascism Expert Warns Trump Could Invoke Emergency Powers to Cancel the Election

 

Image via Shutterstock

Continue Reading

News

White House Shuts Down Briefing After Declaring Lutnick ‘Very Important’ to Trump’s Team

Published

10 hours ago

on

February 10, 2026

By

After Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick told senators on Capitol Hill that he took his family for lunch to the private island owned by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2012, the White House insisted that he remains an important part of the administration. There is bipartisan support for Lutnick to resign from the administration.

A reporter, mentioning Lutnick’s congressional testimony, reminded Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt that the family lunch occurred “after he said that he had cut ties with Epstein,” and that a DOJ document “showed that he was in contact with Epstein through 2018 over messages.”

Leavitt replied, “Secretary Lutnick remains a very important member of President Trump’s team, and the President fully supports the Secretary.”

Epstein was first convicted in 2008.

READ MORE: ‘Bullies’: Backlash as Trump Admin Pulls Pride Flag From Stonewall National Monument

Leavitt then chastised reporters for not asking questions about the White House’s recent “wins” — and then cut the press briefing short after about 20 minutes.

As The Independent reported, “rather than face follow-up questions about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s relationship with deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein after documents released by the Justice Department — and Lutnick’s own sworn testimony to Congress — revealed how he lied about the extent of his ties to the late pedophile,” Leavitt “abruptly cut short a briefing with reporters.”

READ MORE: Carville Predicts Trump Will Get a Complete and Total ‘Whipping’

 

Image via Reuters

Continue Reading

News

‘Bullies’: Backlash as Trump Admin Pulls Pride Flag From Stonewall National Monument

Published

12 hours ago

on

February 10, 2026

By

The Trump administration has removed the LGBTQ pride flag from New York City’s historic Stonewall National Monument, which many consider to be the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ civil rights movement. In 2016, the Stonewall National Monument became the first LGBTQ site to receive a national monument designation.

The move came in response to the Trump administration’s guidance on which flags may be displayed on federal properties.

“The removal comes amid a broader federal effort to scrub LGBTQ+ history from government sites and single out transgender people, raising fears among LGBTQ+ advocates that their community faces erasure from public life,” Axios reported.

According to Gay City News, which first reported the removal, the flag was raised “at Christopher Park in 2022 — back when the Biden administration allowed the flag to go up.”

READ MORE: Carville Predicts Trump Will Get a Complete and Total ‘Whipping’

“Under government-wide guidance,” a spokesperson for the National Park Service told Gay City News, “including General Services Administration policy and Department of the Interior direction, only the US flag and other congressionally or departmentally authorized flags are flown on NPS-managed flagpoles, with limited exceptions.”

“Any changes to flag displays are made to ensure consistency with that guidance. Stonewall National Monument continues to preserve and interpret the site’s historic significance through exhibits and programs.”

Axios noted that a “January memo includes narrow exemptions for non-agency flags, such as those that ‘provide historical context’ or ‘are part of historic reenactments.'”

Vowing to raise the pride flag again, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal said, “We have confirmed that a January 21st federal order has resulted in the removal last weekend of the Pride flag at Stonewall, birthplace of the modern LGBTQ human rights movement. They cannot erase our history.”

New York State Senator Eric Bottcher wrote, “Ordering the removal of Gilbert Baker’s Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument is a shameful attempt to rewrite history. Stonewall is where our community fought back and demanded to be seen. You cannot separate that place from the symbol that grew out of it.”

READ MORE: Trump Pushes Claim Schiff and Swalwell OK’d Leaks to ‘Overthrow’ the Government

Calling Stonewall “sacred ground,” New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin declared the flag’s removal “a deliberate and cowardly attempt to erase … history.”

“This is an attack on LGBTQ+ New Yorkers,” she added, “and we will not stand for it. Our history will not be rewritten, and our rights will not be rolled back.”

California State Senator Scott Wiener commented, “Petty & mean are the point. Like removing the rainbow crosswalk at Pulse & removing Harvey Milk’s name from the navy ship. What these bullies forget is LGBTQ people have been bullied forever & we learned how to fight back. We fought back hard at Stonewall & we’ll do it again.”

U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) called the flag’s removal “another disgusting example of the Trump Administration’s effort to erase the LGBTQ+ community. Removing the Pride flag will not make us forget the legacy of Stonewall. I fought for Stonewall to become designated as a National Monument and I will fight to see that the Pride flag is raised again.”

READ MORE: ‘Lied About His Ties’: Fury After ‘Fraud’ Lutnick Says He Took Family to Epstein Island

Image via Shutterstock

 

 

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.