Last Updated on February 20, 2025
The United States Department of Defense issued a directive the day before Black History Month began declaring identity months ‘dead.’
The U.S. Department of Defense released a notice on Friday, a day before the start of Black History Month, stating that all “identity months” are officially “dead at DoD.” The notice, the release states, is based on a directive by new Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The new directive is “effective immediately,” the report states.
Black History Month is one of the most well-known of the so-called identity months. The directive lists a total of six of them:
| Identity Month | Celebrated in |
|---|---|
| National African American/Black History Month | February |
| Women’s History Month | March |
| Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month | May |
| National Hispanic Heritage Month | September |
| National Disability Employment Awareness Month | October |
| National American Indian Heritage Month | November |
The directive posted on the Department of Defense website leaves out at least one of the better-known identity months: Pride Month, which takes place in June.
But though that particular month isn’t listed, various media outlets say it’s also being excluded.
President Gerald Ford established February as Black History Month back in 1976. Congress designed March as Women’s History Month in 1987 and established October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month in 1988. Also in 1988, President Ronald Reagan established September as National Hispanic Heritage Month. President George H.W. Bush designed November as National American Indian Heritage Month in 1990 and May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in 1992.
Clinton declared June as Pride Month back in 1999.
Here’s what the directive means…and what it doesn’t
Trump didn’t eliminate any of them with his executive order banning diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives. (He’d probably eliminate some of them if he could.)
The directive does not actually cite Trump’s executive order against DEI initiatives. But the timing makes it clear that this is where it’s coming from.
But get this opening line from the directive:
Our unity and purpose are instrumental to meeting the Department’s warfighting mission. Efforts to divide the force – to put one group ahead of another – erode camaraderie and threaten mission execution.
To describe these commemorations as being an “effort to divide” or to “put one group ahead of another” is to absolutely, completely, unquestionably miss the point altogether.
They’re designed to level the playing field that has traditionally placed a higher value on white, straight, Protestant Anglo-Saxon men. Anything less, through our long history, has, on some level, been devalued. Usually, the devaluing was subtle, not blatant.
But if you can’t see that it’s been there, you seriously need to reexamine history. You’ve managed to miss the point, too.
The idea of an identity month recognizes contributions these parts of the populations that have traditionally been relegated to the background have made in making all of us better.
The directive, for what it’s worth, doesn’t ban service members from participating in such identity month events. But it does ban military departments from using official resources, to include man-hours, to host celebrations or events related to them.
The directive ends with exactly the kind of message some of the more racist among us say: We should celebrate everyone, not just minorities.
See for yourself:
Installations, units, and offices are encouraged to celebrate the valor and success of military heroes of all races, genders, and backgrounds as we restore our warrior culture and ethos. We are proud of our warriors and their history, but we will focus on the character of their service instead of their immutable characteristics.
All races, all genders, all backgrounds.
Yes, if there were equality, celebrating all at once would make perfect sense. But if there were complete equality and inclusion, the identity months would never have been created to begin with, now would they?
