BREAKING🚨🏳️‍🌈 The Secretary of Defense stood on a stage at the Iowa State Fair and used an anti-trans slur out loud — then, seconds later, called the U.S. military "colorblind, gender-neutral, merit-based." Pete Hegseth said it Monday afternoon at JR's Southpork Ranch on the fairgrounds, at a campaign fundraiser for Republican Rep. Zach Nunn: "At the Department of War, we do training, not" — and then the slur. He followed it with "it is a day and night difference," then listed the things he says are now the department's only focus: "Training, lethality, accountability, discipline, readiness." The department he runs is still legally called the Department of Defense. Only Congress can rename it, and Congress has not. The "merit-based" military he was describing is the one where he has personally blocked the promotions of qualified Black and women officers. It's also the one where transgender troops are being pushed out under Trump's ban, a push that went forward even as the Justice Department claimed no trans service members had been discharged, while Air Force personnel had already received their separation papers. In June, a divided federal appeals panel ruled the administration cannot discharge the trans troops suing over the ban while their case moves ahead. The administration has asked the Supreme Court to review that ruling and to let the discharges start in the meantime. The event itself was originally set for March. It was postponed after two Iowa soldiers, 45-year-old Major Jeffrey O'Brien of Waukee and 20-year-old Sgt. Declan J. Coady of West Des Moines, were killed with four other service members in an Iranian strike on a facility in Kuwait on March 1. Their deaths were part of what the fundraiser was meant to honor. If you appreciate Gay News, it would mean the world if you followed my page. Thank you for being here.