A San Diego Navy doctor was removed from command last week after right wing activists began sharing screenshots of her LinkedIn account on X.
Cmdr. Janelle Marra is a Navy physician with 21 years of service. According to her Navy biography, she’s spent most of her career in the San Diego area, splitting time between San Diego Naval Medical Center and Camp Pendleton.
On her LinkedIn account, Marra lists she/her pronouns and her bio says she’s the “Navy deputy medical director for transgender healthcare.”
Libs of Tiktok, an account on X that shares anti-LGBTQ+ conspiracies, tagged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth when she quote-tweeted a screenshot of the account saying, “Yikes” and asking Hegseth to “look into this.”
That evening, Hegseth in turn quote-tweeted Libs of Tiktok writing, “Pronouns UPDATED: She/Her/Fired.”
A Navy official with knowledge of the matter told KPBS Hegseth ordered Marra be fired. The official, who is not authorized to comment publicly on the case, said the official cause for Marra’s removal was “a loss of trust and confidence in her ability to command,” which is boilerplate rationale used by the Navy to justify all manner of firings.
Marra’s social media use is now under investigation, the official said.
Marra did not respond to a request for comment.
She got hired by the Oklahoma State Department of Education to help monitor for “woke” in schools.