By Sandra Biskupski-Mujanovic, PhD and Linna Tam-Seto, PhD
Military sexual trauma (MST)1 is widely recognized as a persistent problem within militaries internationally and produces serious consequences for health, well-being, and daily functioning. In Canada, external reviews and national media investigations have repeatedly documented military sexual misconduct and the inadequacy of institutional responses. Far less attention has been paid to the MST experiences of Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual (2SLGBTQIA+) service members and veterans for whom MST is also shaped by homophobia and transphobia.
2SLGBTQIA+ service members and veterans have long faced discrimination and exclusion across military contexts. In the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), this history includes the LGBT Purge, the period from the 1950s to mid-1990s when the Canadian government systematically discriminated against, harassed, and often fired members of the CAF and federal public service who were suspected of being LGBT. The Purge involved state-sponsored surveillance based on sexuality and gender identity, and its legacy continues to shape trust, safety, and belonging. In the US context, despite the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT), the official US policy on non-heterosexual service members that was in effect from the early 1990s to 2011, President Trump’s Administration is openly barring transgender members from service. The ban is having a tremendous negative impact, including the denial of hearings, the denial of retirement benefits, the loss of health benefits, and feelings of being threatened. While new exclusionary policies are not in effect in Canada, the close cultural, political, and institutional ties between the US and Canada mean that Canadian service members may still perceive themselves as vulnerable to similar shifts. This new ban illustrates how inclusion can backslide, particularly for some, as the state establishes sexual and gender diversity as a threat to cohesion, morality, and even national security (a claim that has not been substantiated). We also have evidence of continued discrimination against CAF service members based on sexual orientation, as well as statistics indicating that 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals experience higher rates of sexualized or discriminatory behaviours than heterosexual members. Additionally, the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in Canada faces increased risk of violence, hate speech, stigma, and microaggressions; the anti-gender movement poses a threat of extreme violence in Canada; and Statistics Canada reported in 2023 that hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation rose by 69% from the previous year.
These realities raise important questions for the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, established through the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000 to address the gendered impacts of conflict and to ensure women’s meaningful participation in peace and security processes. Canada’s third National Action Plan on WPS (CNAP3) has committed to addressing sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), sexual exploitation and abuse, and sexual misconduct. The Department of National Defence and CAF implementation plan for CNAP3 also includes SGBV as a focus area, under which it also commits to “strengthen gender-responsive and inclusive systems and services for the prevention of, and response to, Sexual Misconduct and Military Sexual Trauma within the Defence Team.” Unfortunately, DND/CAF have not explained how they will accomplish this goal and progress reports tracking CNAP3 implementation have not yet been released (and are already very late). Previous critiques demonstrate that Canada’s WPS attention has mostly focused outward while paying insufficient attention to WPS issues, including gendered violence occurring at home. Outward-facing implementation of WPS risks “making war safe for women” rather than prioritizing demilitarization, and risks assuming insecurity is always and only ‘elsewhere’ rather than here. While Canada has made progress since earlier NAP iterations (2010 and 2017), gaps remain. Despite CNAP3 including DND/CAF’s implementation plan and naming gender-diverse people as stakeholders, the absence of any benchmarks makes it impossible to assess if and how 2SLGBTQIA+ voices are included.
A recent study by researchers at the University of Toronto’s LINKS Lab (publication of findings forthcoming) demonstrates that 2SLGBTQIA+ experiences of MST are not isolated forms of interpersonal misconduct but are entangled with sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and heteronormativity. These systems of power are also among the root causes of MST and the harmful components of CAF’s culture. While much of WPS relies on binary understandings of gender that fail to adequately account for violence and the targeting of people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, experts in “Queering WPS” urge expanding our understandings of (in)security and listening to those who have lived experience. Drawing on participant interviews, Drs. Biskupski-Mujanovic and Tam-Seto argue that broader exclusion in the military enables MST to continue. Such conditions include heteronormative expectations, discriminatory comments, threats of corrective rape, and everyday hostility toward people perceived as different, with participants highlighting how military leadership and peer cultures normalized these behaviours and created climates where disclosure felt unsafe, reflecting broader patterns of institutional betrayal. Many participants reported deep mistrust of military reporting systems and leadership responses, and described fears of retaliation, minimization, or disbelief if they disclosed MST. These experiences were also linked to significant impacts on mental health and well-being, including anxiety, depression, anger, difficulties forming relationships, and a diminished sense of belonging within and outside of the military. Several participants also described how identity-based discrimination and MST influenced their career trajectories and willingness to seek care. Recovery was described as strengthened in environments where validation and respect were present.
Feminist scholarship has argued that WPS implementation cannot be reduced to checkbox exercises and requires confronting systemic inequality and exclusionary institutional cultures. Mackenzie, Metelits, and Hunter stress that institutionalizing gender perspectives into professional military education requires acknowledging the resistance that WPS efforts continue to face. We also see an increase in gender backlash broadly. Biskupski-Mujanovic and Tam-Seto’s research findings have important implications for the WPS agenda because they highlight how insecurity and gendered violence are not confined to conflict zones abroad but are also produced within military institutions in Canada. If WPS is to create inclusive security institutions, then MST among 2SLGBTQIA+ servicemembers and veterans must be addressed. Achieving this requires moving beyond symbolic inclusion toward institutional transformation that addresses underlying military cultures of heteronormativity, homophobia, and transphobia, including embedding trauma-informed, gender-affirming, and culturally-competent supports into military and veteran systems, strengthening reporting mechanisms, and ensuring WPS implementation plans include measurable commitments related to 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion, accountability, survivor well-being, and institutional culture change.
- MST is defined as “any sexual or sexualized activity that occurs without the person’s consent, during their service as a member of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), and the physically or psychologically traumatic impacts of this activity on the affected person” (from: Heber et al., 2023). MST is considered the most inclusive term to capture a spectrum of sexualized harms in a military context and to acknowledge the impact of such experiences. The CAF has added the term to the Defence Terminology Bank but also uses the language of sexual misconduct. ↩︎
The views in this blog are those of the authors only and do not necessarily represent those of the WPSN-C or its membership.
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