USA Today reports:
President Trump has nominated Tennessee state Sen. Mark Green to become secretary of the Army. The White House made the announcement Friday. Green is a former Army officer and West Point graduate who is popular among many Tea Party-aligned Republicans. His nomination still must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The secretary of the Army, which is the top civilian leader for the U.S. Army, has oversight of the 140-plus Army reserve installations worldwide and an approximately $150 billion budget. The White House’s selection of Green comes after Vincent Viola, Trump’s previous nominee for the position, withdrew his nomination in February.
The Human Rights Campaign reacts:
“Mark Green is a danger to every LGBTQ soldier bravely serving our country,” said Chad Griffin, President of the Human Rights Campaign. “Mark Green has called for states to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and appallingly said that being transgender is a ‘disease.’ He has used his office in Tennessee to push ‘license to discriminate’ legislation and undermine the basic civil rights of LGBTQ people at every turn. It would be unconscionable to put this man in charge of our Army. We call on every U.S. Senator to stand up for LGBTQ service members and reject this nomination.”
“As a Marine discharged under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ I am appalled that Donald Trump would seek to put this man in charge of the U.S. Army,” said Stephen Peters, National Press Secretary for the Human Rights Campaign. “Under President Obama’s leadership, we finally ended policies that forced service members, their partners, and families to hide who they are and treated them as second class citizens. There are thousands upon thousands of us who fought this injustice so that we could serve openly today — and who are now threatened by the appointment of a man who has spent his career working to undermine our rights.”
Green would succeed Obama appointee Eric Fanning, the first openly gay person to head a branch of the US military.