March 29, 2022
President Joe Biden’s nominee to serve as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs previously served as the “Global Project Lead” at Pfizer and is one of the leading proponents of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender representation in the U.S. military, The National Pulse can reveal.
The nomination of Brenda “Sue” Fulton to the Pentagon comes amidst Pfizer’s continued efforts to secure Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its COVID-19 vaccine and boosters.
Fulton, 63, was also recently blasted by members of the United States Senate for referring to right-wingers as “anti-everyone nutjobs falling in love with a dictatorship.”
Posing a potential conflict of interest, Fulton previously worked at Pfizer Consumer Health as a Global Project Lead for half of a decade between 2012 to 2017. She described her duties as “expanding consumer access to Pfizer consumer brands in new channels, all regions,” on her LinkedIn.
From 2012 to 2016, Fulton worked as a Director and later a Franchise Lead for the pharmaceutical company’s “Prescription to Over-the-Counter (OTC) Switch” program. The FDA, which has also overseen the COVID-19 vaccine EUA process, is, therefore, responsible for administering the drug review process that Fulton previously led.
In addition to working for Pfizer, which has hired legions of politically connected lobbyists appearing to push for COVID-19 vaccine mandates, Fulton has a long history of pushing the military to “increase diversity.” Fulton’s nomination comes amidst existing fears the U.S. military is prioritizing instruction of far-left Critical Race Theory over combat readiness.
Fulton served as the President of SPARTA, which describes itself as a transgender military advocacy organization, and describes herself as leading the “battle to end the ban on transgender service in the US Armed Forces.”
“Developed messaging and trained active-duty transgender military members for media interviews,” “secured high-level meetings and brought transgender service members to DC to meet with senior civilians and flag officers in Defense Department, and “drove changed attitudes within the Pentagon resulting in significant policy change,” are among the activities she engaged in according to her LinkedIn.
Fulton was also a Board Member at the OutServe-Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), where she described herself as a “key leader in changing public opinion for repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The policy was responsible for banning “out” gay and lesbian service members.
Fulton was also the Executive Director of Knights Out, comprised of LGBTQ United States Military Academy alumni.
“Built organization from the founding to include hundreds of LGBT West Point graduates,” Fulton explains before adding the group “built [a] network of dozens of LGBT cadets to provide support and counsel prior to repeal of “DADT”; post-repeal, helped gain approval for SPECTRUM, a cadet LGBT & allies resource group.”
Fulton’s decade-long history or activism earned her an appointment from former President Barack Obama to the U.S. Military Academy Board of Visitors, where she was the first openly gay member of the board. She married her wife, Penelope Gnesin, at West Point’s Chapel, which was the institution’s first same-sex marriage.
Fulton has already faced a rocky confirmation process, as several Republican Senators pressed the nominee on old tweets criticizing the GOP and evangelicals. Fulton’s nomination was sent to the Senate on April 27th, 2021, and remains stuck in the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee.
Fulton’s prior employment with Pfizer could present a conflict of interest with her serving in a leading role at the Pentagon, which has mandated vaccines for all service members. The Marine Corps, for example, has granted just .06 percent of all applicants filing religious exemptions to its vaccine mandate.
Pfizer has hired several individuals with links to the White House to work as lobbyists, including Sudafi Henry, President Biden’s former legislative affairs director from his days as Vice President, and Kwabena Nsiah, a former staffer for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra.