Secure Families Initiative Calls for Secretary of Defense to Resign After Reposting Video of Statement that Women Should Not be Allowed to Vote
Statement from Brandi Jones and Rebecca Nowatchik, Military Spouses and Co-Acting Executive Directors of Secure Families Initiative
Military families place profound faith in their leadership. We trust that those in charge will protect us, uphold our rights, and value our sacrifices. But that trust is crumbling at a critical moment. While President Trump calls on the National Guard to deploy on the streets of Washington, D.C., the Secretary of Defense is amplifying a dangerous ideology that devalues military spouses—93% of whom are women—and strips us of our basic rights.
Recently, the SecDef reposted a video from a Christian nationalist church where pastors called for women to be stripped of their right to vote and forced to “submit” to their husbands. If this is the message coming from the highest levels of our military leadership, no military spouse can feel safe.
As military spouses and advocates, Secure Families Initiative has spent the last 5 years fighting in courtrooms and election offices to protect the votes of military families. Together, we won crucial victories in Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Michigan and Arizona—expanding access to absentee ballots, improving ballot tracking for overseas voters, and cutting through red tape that too often disenfranchises our community. Time and again, red tape, relocation, and bureaucratic indifference have tried to silence us. But what we witness now goes far deeper — and it threatens more than just our voices. It threatens the very foundation of our national security.
Military spouses are the backbone of military families—the unsung heroes holding down the home front through deployments, relocations, and countless sacrifices. When the SecDef promotes a worldview that dehumanizes and silences women, it sends a chilling message: military spouses don’t matter. Our safety, our voices, our rights are expendable.
This ideology fuels a culture of control and silence—where coercive abuse can fester behind closed doors in military housing. We have talked with countless members of our community – survivors who fear speaking out because they risk losing custody of their children, access to healthcare, or even their homes. The very system meant to protect us often shields the abuser instead.
Military families face unique challenges—nearly half are minorities, many rely entirely on their service member for financial stability, and most have no rank or voice in the command chain. Isolation and uncertainty are the norm. Being denied the right to vote is just one symptom of a broader pattern of marginalization and vulnerability.
We demand equal protection under the very document our loved ones defend and we serve too: the Constitution. This isn’t just a social or political issue—it’s a security issue. The military cannot operate effectively if its families are unsafe, silenced, or discarded. Our strength at home directly impacts mission readiness abroad. When families suffer, service members suffer, and the entire force weakens.
We call on President Trump, Congress, and military leadership to act immediately: remove the Secretary of Defense from his post, publicly reject these hateful ideologies, and implement meaningful protections for military families—confidential support for abuse survivors, legal and financial resources, and accountability when commands fail.
We demand dignity, safety, and humanity. Because if military families aren’t safe and valued and if the liberties guaranteed to us under the Constitution are not upheld, America’s military is not strong.
SIGN OUR PETITION: Military Families Demand the Immediate Removal of the Secretary of Defense https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/military-families-call-for-secretary-of-defense-hegseth-to-resign?source=direct_link&