[urlhttp://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/adfa-recruits-first-genderneutral-cadet/news-story/5b597dc5c582ba75466f77979ddf06d6][/url]
THE Australian Army has its first gender-neutral officer-to-be after a cadet at the elite training academy told superiors she was no longer female — and did not want to be male either.
The second year-cadet’s decision has Australian Defence Force Academy instructors rewriting the rule books on how to address the cadet.
The young trainee, who can no longer be referred to as she or her, has been moved out of the female barracks and into mixed accommodation at the Canberra academy.
Everyone is tiptoeing around this cadet in fear of saying or doing the wrong thing,” a defence force source told The Daily Telegraph.
“Instructors are correcting everything they say and have to refer to her as ‘officer cadet’ rather than she or he as they do with everyone else.
“Soldiers are not interested in this crap, they want to focus on their real job,” the source added.
In the past five years the ADF has spent more than $1 million helping 27 members deal with gender dysmorphia, including paying for 17 to have sex-change surgery.
EDITORIAL: GENDER WARS COME TO ADF
But the push for political correctness has led to a plunge in morale, with a survey revealing fewer than half of army and navy personnel have any confidence in their leaders or their decisions.
Senator Cory Bernardi said: “The political correctness at defence continues with this gender X trainee raising a raft of questions including which barracks and latrine to use.