Military freezes sexual assault prevention training after Trump executive order on DEI
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Several U.S. military branches are pausing training related to the prevention of sexual assault in order to comply with one of President Trump’s executive orders related to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
A directive issued by Marine Corps headquarters on Tuesday “asked the fleet to PAUSE on all [Sexual Assault Prevention and Reporting] training due to recent changes within the White House to remove diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) from all federal policies,” according to an email obtained by The Times.
The Navy also confirmed it would cease such training for a period of time.
“The Navy is working to fully execute and implement all directives outlined in the Executive Orders issued by the President, ensuring that they are carried out with utmost professionalism, efficiency, and in alignment with national security objectives,” an official Navy statement said.
A military official, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, also confirmed the policy change within the Marine Corps to The Times. Requests for comment from the Department of Defense, the Army, Coast Guard and Air Force were not immediately returned. Details of the training policy change were first reported by Business Insider on Thursday.
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“We’re seeing a lot of things happen very quickly that aren’t well thought out,” said Elisa Cardnell, chief executive of the Service Women’s Action Network, an advocacy organization for women in the armed forces. “It is very worrisome.”
It was not immediately clear how Trump’s efforts to purge diversity initiatives in the federal government required a pause on the military’s decades-long battle to reduce the prevalence of sexual assault within the armed forces.
The types of training now frozen include lessons focused on the nature of consent and sexual harassment, as well as instructions on how to safely report abuse within the military, according to the military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The Sexual Assault Prevention and Reporting training program was launched in 2005 and is considered “the central authority charged with preventing sexual assault in the military,” according to the program’s website.
Since its inception, the number of reported sexual assaults within the armed forces increased dramatically. There were approximately 1,700 reported sexual assaults in the armed forces in fiscal year 2004, according to military records. That number jumped to 8,515 in fiscal year 2023.
Although reporting has improved, the armed forces have continued to face sex abuse scandals. Last month, Maj. Michael Stockin, an Army anesthesiologist, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of sexual misconduct stemming from allegations made by more than 40 patients between 2019 and 2022.
The pause is narrowly focused on training programs and would not affect resources for survivors of sexual trauma or for those reporting or seeking to prosecute violent sexual crimes, according to the statement issued by the Navy.
But the email reviewed by The Times did not contain an endpoint for the pause, and the official who spoke to The Times described it as “open-ended.”
There are also concerns that Washington could cut the program entirely. On Jan. 27, the Navy issued a memorandum listing the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program as among command directives to be canceled. No reason was given.
“This abrupt policy shift has created widespread confusion among recruiters and service members. There is still no clear timeline for when — or if — these programs will be fully restored,” read a statement from Protect Our Defenders, a human rights organization focused on ending sexual assault and racism in the U.S. armed forces.
Advocates were worried that the pause could affect military recruitment at a time when female enlistment is low and discourage assault survivors from coming forward.
“There’s already a stigma to reporting sexual assault,” Cardnell said. “Any time you take away avenues for people to do that, you add extra stigma to it, or you make it just a women’s issue, you make it more difficult for people to report and for the perpetrators to be held accountable.”
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She noted that 7% of women in the military and 1.3% of men reported sexual assaults in 2023, the last year for which data is available.
The military official who spoke to The Times also expressed similar concern over the pause, adding that alarm was amplified in the wake of Trump’s appointment of Pete Hegseth as secretary of Defense.
“When you put a guy who is accused of sexually harassing and sexually assaulting people in charge of the DOD, he’s probably going to have opinions about these kinds of policies,” the official said.
A woman accused Hegseth of assaulting her in a hotel room in Monterey, Calif., in 2017, according to a police report made public last year. Hegseth denied any wrongdoing.
“Leaders set the tone,” Cardnell said.
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