The Australian Defence Force has been criticised for failing to react to a complaint logged eight months ago about a Facebook page set up to ‘out’ officers in the force.
The page, set up under the pseudonym ‘Steve Austin’, has since been removed but it contained a list of allegedly gay soldiers accused of ‘biting the pillow’.
It urged members to out officers believed to be gay and described homosexuality as a ‘filthy lifestyle decision’.
The ADF has hit back at claims that it failed to discipline those involved by stating the inquiry has not progressed because one of those identified on the Facebook page made a formal complaint to NSW police.
Gay activist Rodney Cloome, who works closely with the forces gay and lesbian information, saw such a scandal as inevitable “I was very disappointed when I saw this report but I guess I wasn’t surprised”
“Even though the ADF has allowed gay and lesbian service personnel to serve openly since the early 1990’s, they’ve never followed through properly with the kind of awareness training that makes it clear to recruits that homophobia is damaging”
The ADF has a history of turning a blind eye in relation to sexual harassment and bullying. In 2000 it shelved a complaint made by a female who caught her senior officer spying on her in the shower. Only last week it was struggling to rescue its reputation in the wake of reports that a female cadet was filmed having sex with another student in the ADF Academy in Canberra.
