This week, City Journal broke the story of the National Security Agency’s secret sex chatroom, which was filled with salacious discussions of genital surgeries, trans fetishes, and sexual activities. The headlines rocketed through the national media and led to action by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who, within days, released a memo demanding that the intelligence agencies identify the participants, terminate their employment, and remove their security clearances.

But according to our whistleblower, these sex chats were just the tip of the iceberg. This longtime NSA insider tells me that the ideological capture of the NSA began a decade ago. Trans activists have entrenched themselves in positions of power, pressured employees to undergo reeducation trainings, and compromised national security in the name of ideology.

This is a sadly familiar story in many American institutions. But with the NSA, the stakes are higher. The agency is responsible for overseeing America’s digital intelligence-gathering and is, in theory, a key part of our national security apparatus.

The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Christopher Rufo: Tell me about this culture and how it’s been spreading through the NSA. And talk to me about what it was like, even a year ago or a few months ago, before Trump reentered the White House.

NSA Whistleblower: About ten years ago, they started doing the “employee resource groups”: African-American, veterans, Pride. It was just a meeting here and there, almost like a potluck—culture, food, a speech. Then it started to get more and more. Instead of just one day a month, it was one week a month, or the whole month. You could be hired as a mathematician, a staff officer, or system engineer, but you would spend your time going to these events and having meetings all day about it. They got themselves into position to help craft policy and started pushing the idea that if you want to get promoted, you have to participate in these events.

And then everything became Pride. You would go to a training, and it would be about “privilege” and “how to be a better ally.” A lady would give classes on how to talk “gender-neutral” to people. You had analysts that didn’t want to do the reporting they were supposed to be doing because they were going to have to report on somebody’s “dead name.” They were having this crisis of conscience about reporting the adversary’s actual name because they thought it was their “dead name,” and they didn’t want to disrespect the person. It was like a cult that was hellbent on pushing gender ideology.

Rufo: It seems like this is a clique of very activist male-to-female transgender agents. Tell me about this community.

Whistleblower: There is a very small number of them, but they wield an enormous amount of power. And outside of the sick stuff, you also see a prevalent Marxist philosophy going on with these people in their chat rooms. They hate capitalism. They hate Christians. They’re always espousing socialist and Marxist beliefs.

I know several people at the agency brought that up, like, “Hey, we’re here to fight for the U.S.A. and go after the adversaries.” And they just got hammered. They would just start coming out with “transphobe” and “homophobe” right away or calling you a “racist.” And that’s why a lot of folks are still hesitant to say anything, because you still have people at these agencies in those key spots. It infected everything.

Rufo: And then what is the outcome? In your view, does such a focus on DEI and trans ideology degrade the actual intelligence activities of the agency?

Whistleblower: It does, because you have people more focused on this ideology, and the folks that are into this don’t put their effort into their work. I don’t care if you’re politically left or right; you can’t have an unbiased mind if you’re writing a report, and you’re constantly focused on “how does this apply to gender ideology.” Because when you do that, it’s going to get people killed in the field.

Rufo: You’re talking about trans ideology, cult-like behavior, and Marxist politics. That, to me, screams unstable. It screams counterintelligence risk. How do you see it?

Whistleblower: All of the above. The folks like that were quite unstable. I see it as a counterintelligence risk. But it’s being normalized and it’s being praised. There was a time in the last year when people were writing blog entries trying to one-up each other. “I have a non-binary child.” “Oh, well I have two trans children.” It became a social thing, trying to one-up each other with how weird they are. And then they’d come up with new terms because they have to be unique. They want you to treat them normally and, at the same time, you better recognize that they are unique and different from you. So, there’s no winning. It is a lose-lose scenario.

Rufo: The Director of National Intelligence released a memo that will require all intelligence agencies to identify the trans fetishists and to terminate their employment and revoke their security clearances. How do you expect that to play out?

Whistleblower: I wish I could say I see it playing out well, with them following the orders and doing it. But after the last four years, I just don’t know. They should be able to identify them easily because they have all those logs. If they can’t, then they’re just stonewalling. I hope this is the start of getting our intel agencies back to what they should be doing, which is focused on intel and supporting the warfighter. Just come in and do your job. Leave that shit at the door.

Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

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