The VFW has wandered off mission



Democrat lawmakers recently demanded that the Department of Veterans Affairs restore dedicated LGBTQ+ veteran care coordinators and identity-based programs, putting the fight over gender policy at the VA back in the spotlight. The VA has instead redesignated those positions simply as “care coordinators” serving all veterans and restricted the use of VA resources to promote gender ideology.

As the VA moves away from identity-based programs, the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization has taken a different path.

The VFW’s principles are broad enough to unite veterans across the political spectrum. Abortion and gender ideology do not.

A veterans’ organization should support every veteran. That does not require endorsing every political or ideological position associated with a veteran’s identity. Yet this summer, the VFW again declared “Happy Pride Month” and celebrated veterans specifically on the basis of sexual orientation and “gender identity.”

The VFW has a long and distinguished history. It traces its roots to veterans of the Spanish-American War and helped shape the modern federal veterans system. But in recent years, the organization has also embraced positions on abortion and gender policy that go well beyond its core mission.

The VFW claims it has honored LGBTQ+ veterans during Pride Month since President Bill Clinton’s first proclamation in 1999. In 2019, then-National Commander B.J. Lawrence supported additional VA resources for LGBTQ+ veterans in congressional testimony.

The shift is also visible on abortion. In 2020, the VFW argued that the VA should provide certain abortion-related care. In 2022, it testified in support of H.R. 345, legislation that would have required the VA to provide information and counseling about abortion to veterans facing unwanted pregnancies.

On gender policy, the VFW has continued publishing Pride Month statements. One VFW leader learned how contentious that issue had become after criticizing Pride Month publicly.

The organization’s advocacy deserves scrutiny because policy requests framed simply as “health care” can include deeply contested medical interventions. In past testimony, the VFW demanded expanded resources for transgender veterans. The debate over those treatments has intensified as critics point to the risks of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and irreversible surgical interventions.

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Detransitioners have also brought malpractice claims, including one case that reportedly ended in a $3.5 million settlement. Whatever one thinks of the broader policy debate, these developments make it harder to treat every disputed intervention as politically neutral veterans' care.

The VFW’s advocacy also now conflicts with the direction of federal policy. The VA has reinstated a ban on abortion and abortion counseling in its medical benefits package, while the Trump administration has issued executive orders directing federal agencies and the military to recognize biological sex.

That does not mean the VFW should exclude gay or transgender veterans, or deny that they served honorably. It means the organization should distinguish between serving veterans and endorsing contested ideological programs in their name.

The VFW’s own mission is to “advocate on behalf of all veterans.” Its core values include honoring military service, caring for veterans and their families, and respecting “the diversity of veteran opinions.” Those principles are broad enough to unite veterans across the political spectrum.

Abortion and gender ideology do not. When the VFW takes sides in some of the country’s most divisive moral and political disputes, it risks alienating veterans it is supposed to represent.

The better course is simpler: Fight for veterans’ benefits, health, dignity, and families. Leave woke social causes to the organizations created to fight those battles.

Veterans need a VFW that puts veterans first.

Gay priest thanks God for 'black gay/queer/same-gender loving flesh,' calls Trump a racist



A black and gay-identifying Catholic priest has accused the Trump administration of idol worship.

Fordham professor Fr. Bryan Massingale — who, according to his Fordham bio, is a priest with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee — received the Catholic Theological Society of America's John Courtney Murray Award in June. Massingale used his acceptance speech, published Tuesday by Jesuit publication Outreach, to attack the Trump administration and praise “sexual diversity.”

‘Black flesh is a place of divine encounter, revelation, and manifestation.’

The Trump administration removed Massingale’s book "Racial Justice and the Catholic Church" from the Naval Academy library in April 2025 as part of a wider crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the federal government.

“Why? Because that work is in direct opposition to the idolatrous ideology of white so-called ‘Christian’ nationalism that is the heart of the immoral projects being advanced by our nation’s administration,” according to Massingale. “All of this is done in the name of ‘God’ — an idol that sanctifies only white, male, heterosexual bodies.”

“It was banned because I believed that one cannot be an unabashed racist and call oneself a follower of Jesus,” Massingale said. The book is available on Amazon.

Rev. Massingale and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee did not respond to a request for comment. The CTSA declined to comment.

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Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The theology professor announced his sexual orientation in 2019 at a Global Network of Rainbow Catholics meeting, according to a Spectrum News NY1 interview. Roman Catholic priests promise during their ordination process to maintain celibacy.

Massingale described his “black Catholic theological project” as “more radical than most often acknowledge.” He later told attendees that they live in “a society and a church where folks are not conditioned to love black bodies.”

Massingale did not elaborate on how Americans should be “conditioned to love black bodies.”

The Murray Award winner led a controversial gay priest retreat in 2018, prompting condemnation from then-Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki. Massingale previously considered leaving the Catholic Church, but told NBC News in 2022, “I’m not going to let the church’s racism rob me of my relationship with God.”

In the same interview, Massingale called for clerical celibacy to be optional and told NBC his dream is a church-sanctioned wedding between two black, gay men or two black lesbians.

“I praise the holy mystery who, through the miracles of creation and incarnation, made black gay/queer/same-gender loving flesh sacred and holy,” Massingale’s speech concluded. “Who has stamped black, queer flesh with the image of God and made it a manifestation of God’s presence and grace in the world.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered” and “under no circumstances can they be approved.”

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Sara Gonzales exposes Maine school for inviting sexually charged queer dancer to perform for middle and high school kids



As a mother and a conservative American patriot, BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales refuses to tolerate the indoctrination of children in public schools. That’s why she regularly exposes how radical activists and woke school administrators are pushing sexual and gender ideology on kids instead of focusing on real education.

On this episode of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered,” Sara invites former Oklahoma State Superintendent and current CEO of Teacher Freedom Alliance Ryan Walters to the show to dive into a recent scandal in a Maine public school district.

Earlier this month, Fort Fairfield Schools in Fort Fairfield, Maine, invited a self-described queer musician and dancer by the name of “J-Line” to perform for the middle and high school student bodies.

Sara points out that J-Line’s profile is “filled with cross-dressing, LGBTQ propaganda, and pretty sexually charged content.”

“If I've said it once, I've said it a million times. Public schools are just trying to make your kids trans, gay, and retarded,” she says.

Walters is equally repulsed by Fort Fairfield Schools’ decision to pour resources into the LGBTQ+ agenda as opposed to genuine education. “We'd love to have our kids understand Washington crossing the Delaware, but instead we're doing how to be a gay dancer,” he sighs, lamenting the “extremes” public schools go to make everything about “sexual orientation.”

Sara shares that when she was still in school, she participated in choir and theater, but never once was she subjected to the LGBTQ+ agenda.

“Not one time did my choir teacher or my vocal coach ever talk about actually anything related to sexuality — ever,” she says.

“If they would put one ounce of the effort they push into trying to get kids to be gay or trans into understanding our history and reading on proficient levels, I mean, we would be crushing it right now in education, but unfortunately, they're not doing that,” Walters adds.

Sara points out that under the current Trump administration, public schools are not supposed to be promoting gender or DEI ideology, but she speculates that some are just “doing it in secret.”

Walters says that’s exactly what’s happening — even when parents explicitly complain about it.

Some of the teachers he works with at Teacher Freedom Alliance have reported that in their districts, they are given instructions by administration to “placate” parents who complain about certain progressive ideologies being pushed on their child and then “keep doing it anyway.”

“The left isn't just going to back away,” Walters warns, noting that despite the current Republican administration, liberals are still largely “controlling” many institutions, including education.

“They understand that they control the future if they control the next generation. And so the fight is far from over.”

To hear more of the conversation, watch the video above.

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