吃瓜直播

On military bases across the globe, books are disappearing from shelves. Posters of historical figures, like Frida Kahlo, are being removed from walls. Black History Month celebrations are being cancelled.

This rampant censorship is the result of the Department of Defense鈥檚 new policies banning books, classroom discussions, events, and extracurriculars that relate to race and gender in military-run schools on bases around the world.

At the 吃瓜直播, we know that all students deserve access to a diverse education and, the DOD鈥檚 efforts to strip them of this right violates the First Amendment. So we took the DOD to court.

The U.S. Department of Defense runs public schools on military bases around the world for children of active-duty servicemembers and civilian military personnel. The agency that runs these schools is called the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), and it operates just like any other public school district -- except that it is run by the federal government and therefore is under the direct control of the secretary of defense and the commander in chief. DoDEA serves more than 67,000 students from kindergarten through high school in 161 schools across 11 countries, seven states, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

Compared to more traditional school districts in the U.S., DoDEA is among the most diverse, and most high achieving, in the nation.

But in January 2025, President Donald Trump signed three executive orders that impact DoDEA and how it operates:

• titled 鈥淒efending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government鈥�;
• titled 鈥淩estoring America鈥檚 Fighting Force鈥�; and
• titled 鈥淓nding Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling鈥�

These executive orders prohibit, among other things, the use of federal funds for anything that may promote 鈥済ender ideology鈥� or 鈥渄ivisive concepts,鈥� the latter of which has long been interpreted to cover a wide array of topics related to race, sex, and history. EO 14185 explicitly instructs the military to stop 鈥減romoting, advancing or otherwise inculcating鈥� several 鈥渦n-American, divisive, discriminatory, radical, extremist, and irrational theories鈥� -- all of which implicate books and curricula that relate to race and gender, as we have seen in public schools around the country since 2021. In President Trump鈥檚 , these concepts add up to 鈥渨okeness鈥� and must be removed from schools and the military: 鈥淲okeness is trouble, wokeness is bad, it鈥檚 gone. It鈥檚 gone. And we feel so much better for it, don鈥檛 we? Don鈥檛 we feel better?鈥� Trump said.

In February, DoDEA began implementing these new executive orders. In several emails to teachers and staff, administrators asked that they 鈥渆nsure books potentially related to gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology are removed from the student section鈥� of the library. Parents were told that 鈥渂ooks potentially related to gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology topics鈥� were to be relocated to a private section, away from students, for professional review. In an official, DOD-wide memo from January titled 鈥淚dentity Months Dead at DoD,鈥� the agency instructed all schools to cancel any 鈥渟pecial activities and non-instructional events鈥� related to Black History Month, Women鈥檚 History Month, Pride Month, and more.

A news outlet in Kentucky that librarians at Fort Campbell felt they needed to remove 鈥渁ny books that mention slavery, the civil rights movement or the treatment of Native Americans.鈥� In that same school, an internal memo explicitly banned 鈥渕onthly cultural observances鈥� -- resulting in bulletin boards about Black history being taken down, and the cancellation of similar plans for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Several books and resources were removed from the curriculum, including chapters of two AP Psychology books that discussed human sexuality and a historically accurate, grade-appropriate biography of Robert Cashier, a civil war veteran who was born female but enlisted and fought valiantly as a man in the Union Army. This censorship extended into sex education, too. Several chapters were banned from DoDEA sex ed textbooks, including on communicable diseases, abuse, sexual harassment, and puberty.

The agency left no stone unturned. Even school yearbooks were implicated: no 鈥渧isual depictions, written content, or editorial choices鈥� that may indicate support for 鈥渟ocial transition鈥� was allowed.

According to DoDEA itself, 555 books and 41 curricular materials were removed from schools for review. The court recently ordered them to disclose what they were, but while confirmation is pending, we have compiled a list of 233 titles that were allegedly banned using news reporting, declarations from plaintiffs, and official documentation from DoDEA. This includes books like Freckleface Strawberry by Julianne Moore, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and Juli谩n Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love, and hundreds more.

DoDEA has refused to confirm which books are officially on the chopping block systemwide, despite pleas from parents, students, and advocates. As with other school districts, the vast majority of books allegedly banned within DoDEA are by or about women, LGBTQ people, and people of color.

This is a direct violation of the First Amendment. Students in DoDEA schools, just like other students in American public schools, have a right to receive information about the world around them. They have a right to read books about their own experiences or the experiences of people that are different from them, and they have a right to have their education shaped not by animus or politics but by pedagogical expertise, curiosity, and educational rigor.

The 吃瓜直播, along with the 吃瓜直播 of Kentucky and the 吃瓜直播 of Virginia, filed suit against DoDEA in March on behalf of six families with children in DoDEA schools. These families have children ranging from kindergarten to 11th grade in schools around the world.

We鈥檙e arguing that the removals and bans are not based on 鈥渞ational, age-appropriate, evidence-based concerns鈥� but on politics, and the president鈥檚 鈥渁nti-wokeness鈥� agenda. This limits students鈥� ability to think critically, learn about themselves and their neighbors, and in the case of sex ed materials, even keep themselves safe from harm. On Tuesday, the 吃瓜直播 argued in the Eastern District of Virginia that the court should grant an immediate preliminary injunction to restore curriculum, put books back on the shelf, and prevent DoDEA from continuing to enforce the executive orders that caused all of this.

This battle won鈥檛 just be won in the courtroom 鈥� student organizers in DoDEA schools have been leading walkouts in protest of these new policies, often risking disciplinary action, since January. In South Korea, 40 students participated in one such walkout, which included a flag folding ceremony and a student dressed as the Statue of Liberty. Military parents, like the ones bringing the lawsuit, have spoken out about how incongruous this spate of censorship is with their jobs: 鈥淲e make sacrifices as a military family so that my husband can defend the Constitution and the rights and freedoms of all Americans,鈥� said one such parent.

鈥淚f our own rights and the rights of our children are at risk, we have a responsibility to speak out.鈥�

This is an excerpt of a piece originally published by .