Defence briefing released under freedom of information laws shows ADF beholden to US directives when in training
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Aukus is effectively forcing the Australian navy to comply with a US ban on transgender people in the military with gender-diverse navy recruits prevented from starting a career in nuclear submarines because they would not be safe training on US boats.
Internal Australian defence force documents show transgender and non-binary sailors and officers are explicitly banned from Australia’s nuclear submarine training program because of US policies..
An internal defence briefing, released under freedom of information laws, said while ADF policy on equality and inclusion was unchanged, “US government policy is different”.
“ADF personnel undertaking duty in the US (including training) are required to comply with US policy,” the briefing said.
“Consequently, transgender and nonbinary ADF personnel and ADF career applicants are currently unable to commence the SSN [nuclear-powered attack submarines] training pathway.”
Australia, without a nuclear submarine fleet of its own, has hundreds of sailors and officers training on US nuclear submarines and on US bases.
At a women in defence event in October, Rear Adm Tish van Stralen was asked how the defence force was “managing the recruitment of gender-diverse and LGBTQ+ Australians into the nuclear submarine pathway”