Dr. Mark Green

As expected after making his April Fools Day announcement on the matter, Pr*sident Donald Trump officially nominated Tennessean Mark Green to be the new secretary of the Army Friday. If confirmed, the Republican state legislator will follow Eric Fanning into the post. Fanning, who was confirmed for the job last May, is the first openly gay person to serve as Army secretary. On the other hand, the 52-year-old Green seems to have a problem with gays and this year sponsored a bill that critics labeled a “license to discriminate.”

The nominee for a job overseeing the Army’s 140 reserve installations and a $150 billion budget is a graduate of West Point who became a physician and served three tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, duty for which he received several medals, including a Bronze Star. Green initiated the paperwork for a run for the Tennessee governorship in January but said he would hold off making his run official until after the legislative session ends. If confirmed he would, of course, end his candidacy.

What has LGBTQ advocates “deeply concerned” with Green’s nomination, as my colleague Kerry Eleveld reported earlier this week, are his views about the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders. The American Military Partner Association, the nation's largest organization of LGBTQ military families and allies, is opposed to him: