Several US military branches have suspended training related to preventing sexual assault in order to comply with one of President Trump’s executive orders related to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“We asked the fleet to suspend everything,” an order issued by the US Marine Corps headquarters on Tuesday. [Sexual Assault Prevention and Reporting] Training with recent changes within the White House to remove diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) from all federal governments, according to an email obtained by The Times.
The US Navy has also confirmed that such training will be suspended for a period of time.
“The Navy is committed to fully implementing and implementing all directives outlined in the executive order issued by the President, and is implemented in cooperation with maximum professionalism, efficiency and national security goals. We are trying to do so,” the official Navy statement said.
Military officials, who are speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, also confirmed changes to policy into the era within the Marines. Requests for comment from the Department of Defense, the US military, the Coast Guard and the Air Force were not immediately returned. Details of the training policy changes were first reported by Business Insider on Thursday.
“We’ve seen a lot of people living in the military,” said Elisa Cardnell, CEO of Service Women’s Action Network, an advocacy group for women in the military. “That’s very worrying.”
It’s not soon how Trump’s efforts to clean up diversity initiatives in the federal government have called for a pause in the military’s decades of fights to reduce the prevalence of sexual assault within the military It wasn’t clear.
The types of training currently frozen include lessons focusing on the nature of consent and sexual harassment, and military officials who spoke about conditions of anonymity, which states that in-military abuse should be safe, according to military officials who spoke about the conditions of anonymity. Includes instructions on how to report.
According to the program’s website, the Sexual Assault Prevention and Reporting Training Program was launched in 2005 and is considered “the central authority responsible for preventing sexual assault in the military.”
Since its inception, the number of reported sexual assaults within the military has increased dramatically. Military records show that in 2004, approximately 1,700 sexual assaults were reported in the military. That number jumped to 8,515 in 2023.
The suspension narrowly focuses on training programs and does not affect resources for survivors of military sexual trauma or those seeking to report or prosecute sexual violence, according to a statement issued by the Navy.
However, the email reviewed by the Times did not include an endpoint for “pause” and officials who spoke with the Times described it as “open-ended.” Supporters were worried that the move would discourage survivors from moving forward.
“Reporting sexual assault already has a stigma,” Carnell said. “Whenever people take the path to do it, you add extra stigma to it. Or make it a woman’s problem. You’re saying people report and the perpetrator is responsible for it. It makes it even more difficult.”
She said 7% of military women and 1.3% of male counterparts reported sexual assault in 2023.
Speaking to the Times, military officials also expressed similar concerns about the suspension, adding that the alarm was amplified after Trump appointed Pete Hegses as Secretary of Defense.
“If you put a man accused of sexual harassment or sexual assault on people responsible for DOD, he will likely have an opinion on these types of policies,” the official said.
A woman accused Hegses of attacking her in a hotel room in Monterey, California in 2017, accused her of attacking Hegses, according to a police report released last year.
“Leaders set the tone,” Carnell said.
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