“Glad to see you lastly know what a girl is,” Volesky responded in a tweet that has since been deleted, in keeping with USA As we speak, which reported the information earlier Saturday.
For almost 50 years, ladies have had the correct to make our personal selections about our our bodies.
As we speak, that proper was stolen from us.
And whereas we could also be devastated by this injustice, we won’t be silent. We won’t sit again because the progress we’ve got already received slips away.
— Jill Biden (@FLOTUS) June 24, 2022
Military spokesperson Cynthia Smith advised The Washington Submit in an announcement that Lt. Gen. Theodore Martin, commanding normal of the Mixed Arms Heart, suspended Volesky from his contract as a senior mentor “pending the result of the commander’s inquiry.” Within the function, Volesky was among the many retired navy officers or senior retired civilian officers who supply mentorship and coaching to Military officers, staffers and college students.
Volesky didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Saturday afternoon. The White Home declined to remark.
Volesky, 60, is a embellished officer with an extended navy profession. Earlier than he retired from the Military and was employed as a mentor, Volesky commanded I Corps, a serious navy formation, and led Joint Base Lewis-McChord from 2017 to 2020. From 2014 to 2017, he commanded the 101st Airborne Division, famend for its function on D-Day throughout World Conflict II. From 2012 to 2014, he was the chief of the Military’s public affairs division.
Volesky served within the Gulf Conflict, the Iraq Conflict, and the Conflict in Afghanistan. He was awarded a Silver Star, the third-highest navy fight honor, for his involvement in navy efforts in northeastern Baghdad. He’s an advisory board member for Unified Enterprise Applied sciences, an data expertise firm headquartered in Michigan.
Volesky’s reply to Biden’s tweet bears echoes of an interplay between Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Decide Ketanji Brown Jackson throughout Jackson’s Supreme Court docket affirmation hearings this yr. Blackburn, who has criticized a invoice to strengthen LGBTQ protections, pressed Jackson to outline the phrase “girl” in reference to transgender rights.
A motion in opposition to transgender rights has gained extra traction within the aftermath of the Dobbs v. Jackson Girls’s Well being Group determination, notably round using the phrase “ladies” to explain individuals affected by abortion restrictions. Lots of the motion’s supporters — typically known as trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) — have decried what they are saying is the shortcoming to name themselves “ladies” as gender-inclusive language turns into extra generally used. On Monday, entertainers Bette Midler and Macy Grey had been criticized for his or her anti-transgender feedback.
Volesky has posted different political tweets, together with a July 2021 reply to a tweet from Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) wherein she introduced that she would serve on the choose committee to research the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. She wrote, “Our oath to the Structure should be above partisan politics.”
Political messages from retired navy members aren’t new.
In 2016, retired Marine Gen. John Allen endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, whereas retired Military Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn known as for Clinton to be locked up, and he later served as Trump’s nationwide safety adviser earlier than he was fired for mendacity to federal investigators. In 2019, retired Military Gen. Stanley McChrystal known as Trump “immoral” and stated he didn’t imagine that the then-president was truthful. Retired Navy Adm. William McRaven wrote a Washington Submit opinion article in 2020 criticizing Trump for undermining “each main U.S. establishment.”
