Pentagon calls Netflix's hit gay Marines show Boots 'woke garbage'

Netflix's new show Boots is topping the streamers' viewing charts, but the U.S. military isn't as enthusiastic about the show as fans are.

The Pentagon now says in a statement that it does not endorse the new show, which stars Miles Heizer as a closeted young man who joins the Marines in a time when it was forbidden for gay recruits to serve.

"Under President Trump and Secretary 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," a statement from Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson to Entertainment Weekly says.

In the statement, Wilson says that 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."

Netflix has yet to respond.

Since becoming Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth has made several moves to erase LGBTQ+ people from the military. In June, he announced that a Navy ship named for gay rights leader Harvey Milk would be renamed. Hegseth also supports Trump's Executive Order 14183, which mandates the discharge of all trans service members and prevents new trans troops from enlisting.

"Everything starts and ends with warriors, from training to the battlefield," Hegseth said in a speech in May. "We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind. No more pronouns. No more climate change obsession. No more emergency vaccine mandates. No more dudes in dresses, we're done with that shit."

Boots is inspired by the real-life memoir The Pink Marine: One Boy's Journey Through Boot Camp by Greg Cope White. In the show, Heizer stars as Cameron Cope alongside Max Parker, Sachin Bhatt, Jack Cameron Kay, Angus O'Brien, Dominic Goodman, Kieron Moore, and Vera Farmiga.

Both Heizer and White were named to the 2025 Out100, Out's annual list of LGBTQ+ changemakers, for their work on the groundbreaking show. Boots is also The Advocate's new cover story.