A group of nine professors from service academies and war colleges are calling President Trump’s choice to be Army secretary a “serious threat” to military values, according to a letter provided to the Washington Examiner Friday.
The current faculty members, who were joined by 12 of more former professors, wrote a letter of opposition to Tennessee state Sen. Mark Green, saying he has attacked the gay and transgender community as well as “Latinos, women, Muslims, and members of the armed forces.”
The letter included professors at the Naval Academy, Air Force Academy, Naval War College, Naval Postgraduate School and Marine Corps War College, and it was provided by the Palm Center, an independent institute that promotes the study of sexual identity in the military.
“Mark Green would undermine good order and discipline by fostering dissension within the ranks and sowing confusion about what the military stands for,” the faculty members wrote.
Green has denied claims he is against minority groups and said liberals are targeting him for his religious faith.
Trump picked Green, 52, a conservative Christian lawmaker and former Army special operations flight surgeon, to be the Army’s top civilian earlier this month. He was on the task force that captured deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and wrote a book about his experience.
But videotaped public comments Green made in recent years have sparked opposition from House Democrats, liberal advocacy groups and transgender reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner.
Earlier this week, 31 Democrats urged the Senate to reject Green’s nomination due to a “history of homophobia and transphobia.” A national Muslim advocacy group charged him with Islamophobia.
The group of faculty members added more allegations to the growing list in their letter Friday.
Green speculated that an increase in Latino voters in Tennessee meant they were “being bussed here probably,” they wrote.
Green, a physician and CEO of an emergency room staffing company, also said he has refused to prescribe birth control to women and claimed that the military’s generals are “afraid of their shadow,” the current and former professors wrote.
