Army secretary nominee takes heat over transgender comments

Two civil rights groups are trying to derail President Trump’s nominee for Army secretary by claiming he is opposed to gay and transgender rights.

The American Military Partner Association and the Human Rights Campaign are calling Tennessee state Sen. Mark Green a “radical” and pointed to critical comments he made last year to a state Tea Party group about the Obama administration’s push for transgender bathroom rights.

The groups’ opposition comes as the Senate prepares to consider Green’s nomination and less than a year after the military allowed transgender troops to serve openly.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Green’s record is “deeply troubling.”

“Sen. Gillibrand has serious concerns about Mark Green, particularly his deeply troubling record of supporting policies that are discriminatory against the LGBTQ community,” according to a statement released by her staff. “She will look to hear these concerns addressed during his confirmation hearings.”

Other Democrats on the committee, which will hold the first confirmation hearing for Green, are likely to seize on his comments on the volatile debate over transgender bathroom rights.

“The notion that Mr. Obama thinks he can tell the state of Tennessee who can go into a men’s bathroom or a women’s bathroom is absurd,” Green said during a town hall-style meeting posted in September.

In another comment, the businessman and former Army special operations flight surgeon told the crowd that a vast majority of millennials accept transgender rights, but medical professionals have a different view.

“If you poll the psychiatrists, they are going to tell you that transgender is a disease,” he said.

Green also suggested to the group that the Tennessee governor should stop issuing same-sex marriage licenses and that the public would support such a move as an act of civil disobedience.

“The Senate must reject his nomination,” Stephen Peters, the national press secretary for Human Rights Campaign, wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner.

Peters called Green among the most extreme anti-gay and anti-transgender politicians in the country, and said his views contradict core values of the military, which in recent years has experienced a dizzying shift to allowing openly gay and transgender service as well as women in combat roles.

“His confirmation would send a dangerously harmful message down the chain of command undermining the incredibly important progress we’ve made toward ensuring all soldiers are treated fairly — regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” he wrote.

AMPA, which bills itself as the country’s largest group representing gay, bisexual and transgender in the military, and the HRC, also held a press call Monday to lay out what they said is Green’s “anti-LGBTQ record” as his nomination awaits consideration.

Both groups had already voiced earlier opposition.

“We are deeply concerned over reports that Mark Green will be nominated as Secretary of the Army,” said AMPA President Ashley Broadway-Mack said on April 4. “Green has made a shameful political career out of targeting LGBT people for discrimination. All soldiers and their families, including those who are LGBT, should have confidence that the Secretary of the Army has their back and is working for their best interest. Unfortunately, based on his vicious, anti-LGBT record, Mark Green cannot be trusted to ensure all those who serve have the support they need and deserve.”

Green, 52, could not be immediately reached for comment at his senate office Monday.

The White House announced the nomination Friday. Green is businessman and former Army special operations flight surgeon and West Point graduate, who was on the mission to capture Saddam Hussein and wrote a book about the experience.

He is now the CEO of Align MD, a hospital and emergency room staffing company that he founded.

If confirmed, Green and his conservative politics would be a departure from former Army Secretary Eric Fanning, who was appointed by President Obama as the service’s first openly gay secretary.

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