Pentagon condemns Netflix’s gay military series ‘Boots’ as ‘woke garbage’

A Pentagon spokesperson denounced the Netflix gay military series “Boots” as “woke garbage” in a statement on Thursday. 

“Boots,” which premiered on Oct. 9, follows the story of closeted gay teenager Cameron Cope, played by Miles Heizer, joining the military during the 1990s under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

The “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach barred openly gay, lesbian or bisexual people from joining the armed forces and was official U.S. policy from 1993 until 2011.

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Aaron Tichenor attends Netflix’s BOOTS Camp, Clips & Convo at The Standard Highline on Oct. 4, 2025, in New York City. (Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for Netflix)

In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson condemned the show’s depiction of the military, saying officials “will not compromise our standards to satisfy an ideological agenda, unlike Netflix whose leadership consistently produces and feeds woke garbage to their audience and children.”

“Under President Trump and Secretary [Pete] Hegseth, the U.S. military is getting back to restoring the warrior ethos. Our standards across the board are elite, uniform, and sex-neutral because the weight of a rucksack or a human being doesn’t care if you’re a man, a woman, gay, or straight,” Wilson’s statement read.

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Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson called the series “woke garbage.” (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Fox News Digital reached out to Netflix for comment.

The show premiered a little over one week after Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced new personnel standards for service members during a speech at Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia last month.

“No more identity months, DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division, distraction or gender delusions,” Hegseth said. “As I’ve said before, and I’ll say again, we are done with that s—.”

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U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth speaks to senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., Sept. 30, 2025.  (Andrew Harnik/Pool via Reuters)

Throughout his speech, Hegseth decried politicized military leaders lowering standards and installing diversity programs for the sake of meeting quotas rather than “preparing for war and preparing to win.”

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“We became the woke department. But not anymore,” Hegseth said, declaring the “Defense Department” to be “dead.”