Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth joined forces with one of social media’s most vitriolic anti-trans campaigners last week to drum a Navy Commander out of the service over her support for transgender healthcare.

It was a one-two punch from Hegseth in service of the president’s crusade against “woke” ideology and transgender people in the federal government and American society at large.

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In a post to X on Thursday, anti-LGBTQ+ activist Chaya Raichik – who writes under the name “Libs of TikTok” – maligned the Navy’s Dr. Janelle Marra by highlighting the words “she/her,” “Transgender Healthcare,” and “LGBTQ+ Health” on a screenshot of the doctor’s LinkedIn profile.

Apparently, those terms were evidence enough for Hegseth of the commander’s unfitness to serve.

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He reposted Raichik’s vilifying post with the words, “She/her/fired.”

“This might be one of the most hateful tweets I’ve seen,” said one X user in the replies.

There’s been no official announcement from the Defense Department of Marra’s firing, but it follows a parade of terminations of women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community by Hegseth since the start of the current administration in January, and adds to a pattern of dismissals often carried out without formal explanation.

Raichik has been designated an extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center for her rabid anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda. 

“This is the digital stasi,” said prominent trans advocate and Harvard Law School instructor Alejandra Carabello of Raichik’s informer tactics and Marra’s “firing” by Hegseth just hours later.

“Social media influencers utilizing tips from followers for content that they monetize while working with state actors to target the people they want. It’s all a spectacle packaged as content. Destroying people’s lives for profitable ideological bloodsport.”

“Anything as innocuous as a pride flag can cause a federal investigation now or people to lose their jobs,” Carabello added. “The spectacle is there to create fear in everyone else that they need to comply or they are next.”

Space Force Col. Bree Fram, the highest-ranking transgender officer in the US Armed Forces and now on administrative leave pending separation under the administration’s latest ban on transgender service members, praised Marra’s service and denounced her treatment by Hegseth.

“Janelle Marra is an outstanding Navy doctor who volunteered to serve and has done far more than this country asked of her,” Fram posted on social. “In 2018, she was named the top female doctor in the military health system.”

“And this is the thanks she gets from her nation?”

Marra has since updated her LinkedIn page to remove her pronouns and profile photo and added a disclaimer reading, “This profile does not represent the opinions of the DoD, DHA, Navy, or other government entities.”

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