Pete Hegseth on Chaya Raichik’s Leash
When Chaya Raichik tagged the Secretary of Defense to “look into” a Navy doctor, he leaped into action like a good boy.
Humor by Aly Gibbs
This just in: The United States Secretary of Defense (now unofficially the Secretary of War, because Donald Trump thinks the word “defense” is woke), Pete Hegseth, former Guantanamo Bay guard and current bag of dicks, is taking his marching orders from private citizen and professional transphobe Chaya Raichik.
On September 4th, Raichik reposted a picture of Navy Doctor Janelle Marra’s LinkedIn account from her minority targeting platform Libs of TikTok, tagging Hegseth and suggesting that he “look into” Dr. Marra explicitly because she included her pronouns in her account bio and listed her job as Deputy Medical Director for Transgender Healthcare. Hours later, Hegseth quoted Raichik’s post and said, “Pronouns UPDATED: She/Her/Fired.”
I’m going to ignore the fact that “fired” isn’t a pronoun. I know that isn’t the point. I’m extremely anal about the English language, and I regularly argue with people about grammar and using words correctly, but I understand that Hegseth’s misunderstanding of the very concept of pronouns isn’t important right now. I really get that, so I won’t say anything. We’ll just move along right now to my next point. We’re going to do that… right now, thank you. Thanks.
It’s unclear whether or not Dr. Marra has actually been fired. Samantha Riedel at Them reached out to the Navy for comment but received no response, possibly because, as she mentions in her coverage of this incident, the fed has expressed that they don’t respond to emails from accounts that list their pronouns in their signature.
Normal. Cool. Whatever.
We’ve written about Raichik many times before, you may recall. We wrote about her when she hated Skittles, and when she was given an important job in Oklahoma education despite never having set foot in the state, and when she was accused of repeatedly instigating bomb threats at children’s hospitals. We have a Trans Data Library entry for Raichik, and the Southern Poverty Law Center has a page about her in their section about hate groups and extremists.
It seems fair to ask, then, why is the Secretary of Defense at Raichik’s beck and call like a little bitch? Why is a woman who has served in the Navy as a medical professional for more than two decades now in the crosshairs of an extremist hate monger who directs lethal threats at sick children? Should a woman’s life potentially be ruined simply for attracting Chaya Raichik’s ire by including her pronouns in her LinkedIn profile?
Former Colonel Bree Fram, herself ousted from the military during Trump’s purge of transgender service members, said in a post on social media:
“Janelle Marra is an outstanding navy doctor who volunteered to serve and has done far more than this country asked of her. Throughout her career she has gone above and beyond what duty called for … Thousands of military members are living better lives today thanks to Dr. Marra. Others are alive thanks to her … She deserves better. She deserves respect for her sacrifices, not outrage over the fact that she cared for people.”
This is the new world order, it seems. Under the Trump regime, any loudmouth with enough conservative clout can demand the attention and action of the most powerful members of our government to target good people for harassment. If a doctor who has spent her entire adult life caring for others can potentially lose her job overnight, just because Chaya Raichik noticed she exists, then you can be assured nobody is safe.
Aly Gibbs (She/They), formerly Alyssa Steinsiek, is a trans writer who reports on news important to the queer community.
