Air Force Academy ‘partners’ with LGBT-phobic New Life Church

The Air Force Academy seems to love shooting itself in the foot lately. Its most recent blunder is an Air Force Academy Band concert held at — and “in partnership with” — the blatantly LGBT-phobic, evangelical Christian New Life Church in Colorado Springs. You can read about that concert, and the academy’s response, in the Colorado Springs Independent: Academy “partners” with religion, drawing criticism.

The academy’s feeble response cites Department of Defense Instruction 5410.18, which governs community relations, but they chose to ignore the specific Air Force regulation that applies to bands, which states, in part: “Band support at events which are commercially sponsored, designed to increase business traffic, or associated with a particular religious or ideological movement … or would trivialize Air Force participation … is not authorized.”

New Life Church has a clear history of anti-LGBT discrimination. It exiled its founding pastor, Ted Haggard, after discovering he was engaged in a same-sex relationship. It also shunned former security guard Jeanne Assam, who took down gunman Matthew Murray inside the church’s walls, after her book agent accidentally outed her.

In that context, it’s clear that New Life Church is a “religious or ideological movement.” And yet the band played on. It’s clear that any event held in New Life Church is not “open to the public,” as the Air Force Academy would like to claim. And yet the band played on.

This is the same institution that recently hired a public relations “consultant,” for an amount they refuse to disclose, and whose public affairs officer doesn’t even seem to know how much it spends each year on public relations and outreach — he quoted $30,000, but the real amount is much closer to $10 million.

The Air Force Academy’s LGBT cadets, alumni, faculty and staff deserve better. They deserve leadership that isn’t tone-deaf, but more importantly, they deserve a public affairs office that isn’t incompetent.