Navy chief defends nonbinary officer from GOP attacks over poem reading

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday on Tuesday defended a nonbinary officer from Republican criticism at a Senate Armed Services committee hearing.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said during the hearing he had a lot of problems with a video on the Navy’s social media last week in which a nonbinary junior officer, Lt. j.g. Audrey Knutson, said the “coolest thing” about their deployment aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford last year was reading during an LGBTQ spoken-word poetry night. 

Tuberville said he hopes officers are trained “to prioritize their sailors, not themselves” and asked Gilday whether it surprised him that the junior officer’s highlight was “about herself and her own achievement.” 

The navy chief countered that he’s “particularly proud” of the sailor. 

“Her grandfather served during World War II, and he was gay and he was ostracized in the very institution that she not only joined and is proud to be a part of, but she volunteered to deploy on Ford and she’ll likely deploy again next month when Ford goes back to sea,” Gilday said. 

The Navy asks “people from all of the country, from all walks of life, from all different backgrounds to join,” and commanding officers have to build a “cohesive war-fighting team” based on trust, dignity and respect, he noted.

“That level of trust that a commanding officer develops across that unit has to be grounded on dignity and respect,” the navy chief added. “And so, if that officer can lawfully join the United States Navy, is willing to serve, and willing to take the same oath that you and I took to put their life on the line, then I’m proud to serve beside them.”

Tuberville parried that “the problem that I’m having is the obsession with race, gender, sex” and knocked what he perceived as a focus on self over team.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) shared the video on Twitter and wrote, “While China prepares for war this is what they have our @USNavy focused on.”