Netflix has been placed in the crosshairs as Trump’s Pentagon, headed by Pete Hegseth, has slammed the streaming service for spreading “woke garbage.” This statement from the Department of Defense on Wednesday, October 16, comes a week after Netflix released the LGBT military series “Boots,” a coming-of-age drama-comedy that follows a closeted gay teenager as he struggles through basic training in the U.S. Marines during the 1990s. Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson blames the network for satisfying an “ideological agenda” that does not fit the “warrior ethos” that she says President Trump and Secretary Hegseth are trying to restore in the U.S. military.
Pentagon condemns Netflix for spreading “woke garbage”
“Our standards across the board are elite, uniform and sex neutral,” Wilson said in a statement sent to various outlets, “because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man, a woman, gay, or straight.”
This is despite Trump signing an executive order in February, which was further clarified by Hegseth in May per the Associated Press, that barred transgender people from enlisting in the US military.
Wilson continued, “We 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.”
The military series Boots, starring openly gay actor Miles Heizer who plays protagonist Cameron Cope, is based on the memoir “The Pink Marine” written by Greg Cope White, a former sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps. White serves as one of the writers and an executive producer for the eight-episode series. The series in the 1990s during a time when the U.S. military had a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for its LGBT service members.
Based on October 17, Boots is the third most popular TV series on air according to IMDB between Peacemaker and The Last Frontier. It holds a high 93% Tomatometer critic rating based on 30 reviews and 88% Popcornmeter rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
