More than two decades of experience working on military policy, serving as chief of staff under Defense Secretary Ash Carter at the Pentagon and serving as the undersecretary for the Air Force are apparently not sufficient enough accomplishments to prevent Republican presidential candidates from demeaning your promotion to Secretary of the Army if you are gay.
On Friday, President Obama announced the historic appointment of Eric Fanning to become the first openly gay civilian secretary of any branch of the military. Fanning was described by Defense Secretary Ash Carter as “one of our country’s most knowledgeable, dedicated, and experienced public servants,” but that did not stop former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee from denouncing Fanning’s appointment as pandering to “America’s homosexuals.”