Abigail Spanberger, former member of Congress and candidate for governor of Virginia, has kept rather quiet about her career in the Central Intelligence Agency. As people should know, that could have something to do with her mixed signals on trans ideology. Last month, reporters asked Spanberger if she supported “transgender women” playing in female sports and using female restrooms. The Democrat replied:

So in Virginia, until very recently we have had a process in place where on an individual, one-by-one basis, schools, principals, parents, coaches were making decisions based on fairness, competitiveness and safety, where a child might be able or might not be able to play in a particular sport.

When reporters pressed the case, Spanberger said, “I would support a bill that would put clear provisions in place that provide a lot of local ability for input, based on the age of children, based on the type of sport, based on competitiveness.” And so on—a classic nonanswer.

Opponents have cited Spanberger’s vote against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which restricted “transgender women” and girls from competing in female sports categories. The Virginia Democrat also supported the Equality Act, which sought to make gender identity and sexual orientation a protected class. On that theme, Rep. Spanberger had plenty of company, but her zeal for trans ideology may flow from a different source.

“One CIA demographic group that my deputies and I felt especially privileged to support was the LBGTQ community,” former CIA director John Brennan wrote in Undaunted: My Fight Against America’s Enemies, at Home and Abroad. In reality, there is no such “demographic group” because there is no LBGTQ “community.” As Bruce Bawer has often noted, homosexuality and transgenderism are “two utterly different phenomena” and “queer” can mean anything.

The LBGTQ formulation is a prefabricated political construct. Should that be doubted, imagine a Lawyer, Gynecologist, Baker, Trucker, Quaker “community” or “demographic group.” The construct people are on the same page with those who think they are Mae West, Elvis, or Napoleon. Such reality dysphoria should have no place at an agency responsible for crucial intelligence. Yet, the “community” Brennan felt especially privileged to support “wore badges of ANGLE, the Agency Network for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Officers and Allies.” It’s all part of CIA dedication to “diversity.”

According to John Gentry, author of Neutering the CIA: Why US Intelligence Versus Trump Has Long-Term Consequences, the CIA deploys diversity dogma to a greater extent than the National Security Agency. As the former CIA analyst noted, the NSA specifies 11 employee “resource groups,” including IC-Islamic Culture, NG-Next Gen, and PRIDE—Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allies.

John Brennan could cite “no major accomplishments in operational performance” Gentry wrote, and “no IC official ever credibly explained how demographic diversity improved the performance of US intelligence or even provided an example.” Others claim to have found several. Consider the mysterious Sneha Nair, Biden’s choice for “special assistant” at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and co-author of “Queering nuclear weapons: How LGBTQ+ inclusion strengthens security and reshapes disarmament.” During “Pride Month,” Nair wanted readers to understand:

The visible representation and meaningful participation of queer people matters for nuclear policy outcomes. Discrimination against queer people can undermine nuclear security and increase nuclear risk. And queer theory can help change how nuclear practitioners, experts, and the public think about nuclear weapons. . . Equity and inclusion for queer people is not just a box-ticking exercise in ethics and social justice; it is also essential for creating effective nuclear policy. Studies in psychology and behavioral science show that diverse teams examine assumptions and evidence more carefully, make fewer errors, discuss issues more constructively, and better exchange new ideas and knowledge.

And so on, the reality dysphorians imagine themselves deployed as woke ubermenschen. Outside of government, they serve the left as an oppressed minority. “Trans rights” includes the demand that all others fall in line with men’s claim to be women, and vice versa. On the other hand, holding to biological reality is considered an attempt to “erase” the trans people, which fills them with rage.

Dial it back to March 27, 2023, in the run-up to the “Trans Day of Vengeance” at a Christian school in Nashville. Audrey Hale, a woman who thought she was a man, gunned down nine-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs, and shot dead adults Mike Hill, Katherine Koonce and Cynthia Peak. Rep. Spanberger regarded the mass murder as a case of gun violence but condemnations of the shooter from the CIA veteran are hard to find.

On Aug. 27, 2025, Robert Westman, who “identified” as Robin Westman, opened fire on students at the Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis, killing eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel, 10-year-old Harper Moyski, and wounding 17 others, 14 of them children.

“I am horrified by today’s shooting in Minneapolis,” said Spanberger in an X post, “and Adam and I are praying for the victims of this horrific act of gun violence. My heart is with all the children, families, teachers, community members, and first responders who will forever be impacted by today’s horrifying shooting.” As parents might note, Spanberger failed to name or condemn the shooter and offered no insight on his motive. For all but the willfully blind, the CIA vet is all-in with trans ideology, hardly the only strain of reality dysphoria at the CIA

As Brennan shows in Undaunted, the mighty CIA had not the slightest clue about the massive attack of Sept. 11, 2001. Brennan believes “the Islamic teaching that jihad is a holy struggle in pursuit of a moral goal,” and that violence and jihad are “not necessarily synonymous.” So, no surprise that the CIA failed to prevent Islamic jihadist attacks at Fort Hood (2009), the Boston Marathon (2013), San Bernardino (2015), and Orlando (2016), all of which resulted in a massive loss of innocent life.

John Brennan was one of the 51 “intelligence community” veterans who signed the letter charging that the Hunter Biden laptop was “Russian disinformation,” a blatant lie that they all knew was false. Three days after the letter was published, Rep. Spanberger said,

I think it’s absolutely appropriate that tech firms should not be pushing Russian propaganda. And when it is, they are made aware that that exists by the United States’s FBI, they have an obligation to recognize the harm that propaganda from a foreign adversary nation can pose to our elections and our election systems.

Former CIA operations officer John Sipher, another signatory to the Biden laptop letter, was featured in Spanberger’s ads. Agent Double-O-Trans was all-in with the Russia hoax, and as the Virginia Democrat confirms, what happens in the CIA doesn’t stay in the CIA.

“Intelligence officials abuse their positions to discredit opposition to the Democratic Party, of which they are part.” noted the late Angelo Codevilla, an authority on the CIA like no other. “Complicit with the media, they leverage the public’s mistaken faith in their superior knowledge, competence, and patriotism to vilify their domestic enemies from behind secrecy’s shield.”

Whatever happens on Nov. 4, President Trump and Congress should follow Codevilla’s advice and abolish FISA, reform the FBI, and break up the CIA. No more partisan prevaricators, no more jihad deniers, and no more promoters of trans ideology. The people will be watching.