OAN Staff Blake Wolf
12:42 PM – Monday, February 3, 2025
Singer Alicia Keys, whose real name is Alicia Augello Cook, proudly took the stage at the Grammy Awards on Sunday, proposing her case for why DEI initiatives are “a gift” in the United States and beyond.
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“This is not the time to shut down a diversity of voices. We’ve seen on this stage, talented, hardworking people from different backgrounds with different points of view, and it changes the game,” Keys, 44, stated, while receiving the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award.
“DEI is not a threat, it’s a gift. And the more voices, the more powerful the sound,” she continued.
“When destructive forces try to burn us down, we rise from the ashes like a phoenix. And as you see tonight, music is the unstoppable language that connects us all. It’s so beautiful,” she added. “So let’s keep showing up with compassion, with empathy, what I call soul care. Keep opening the doors, the dreams of the world as it ought to be.
Additionally, singer and actress Lady Gaga showed her support for “trans people,” stating: “Trans people are not invisible. Trans people deserve love, the queer community deserves to be lifted up.”
This year’s “woke” activism at the Grammys is being labeled as notable response to President Donald Trump’s election win and his recently signed executive orders. Trump signed orders reversing “discriminatory” diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, while also ordering the military to ban transgender people from joining.
“Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” rescinds an order by then-President Joe Biden that permitted transgender-identifying service members to enlist and be financially covered for gender transition-related surgeries and hormones. It also reinstates a policy from Trump’s first term, NBC News reported.
“It is the policy of the United States Government to establish high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity,” the order states. “This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria. This policy is also inconsistent with shifting pronoun usage or use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual’s sex.”
Trump further explained his position on the DEI initiatives as well.
“My administration has taken action to abolish all discriminatory diversity, equity and inclusion nonsense — and these are policies that were absolute nonsense — throughout the government and the private sector,” Trump stated last month.
President Trump also previously stated in August that, “If you want to have a sex change or a social justice seminar, then you can do it somewhere else, but you’re not going to do it in the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Space Force, or the United States Marines — Sorry.”
The transgender ban for service members includes bans for any individual who identifies as a gender other than that of their birth sex — on grounds of mental unfitness.
“The United States military has a clear mission to protect the American people and our homeland as the world’s most lethal and effective fighting force,” the executive order read. “Success in this existential mission requires a singular focus on developing the requisite warrior ethos, and the pursuit of military excellence cannot be diluted to accommodate political agendas or other ideologies harmful to unit cohesion.”
“Consistent with the military mission and longstanding DoD policy, expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service,” the order continued. “Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”
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