A recent hire at the Biden-Harris Department of Energy’s Nuclear Security Administration believes that “queer theory” is crucial to American security, as part of her sprawling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ideology, Fox News revealed Wednesday.
Sneha Nair, special assistant in the NSA, has written in the past about the intersection between DEI and nuclear security implementation, arguing that “DEI is an important framework for addressing widespread social and political inequities with critical implications for strengthening security at nuclear facilities.” DEI is “essential for strong nuclear security implementation,” she said in a Stimson Center article, adding that “creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive nuclear security culture requires organizations to ensure that DEI is seen as a critical component of security throughout the organization, from the executives to the guard force.”
Nair was formerly a research analyst with the Nuclear Security Program at Stimson, which receives hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. In a June 2023 opinion article, Nair made the case for “queering nuclear weapons,” imploring policy-makers to “look to LGBTQ+ inclusion for better nuclear policy outcomes, and build environments in which queer people can bring their specific skills and lived experiences to bear without fear.”
“Queer theory is a field of study, closely related to feminist theory, that examines sex- and gender-based norms,” she wrote. “It shines a light on the harm done by nuclear weapons through uranium mining, nuclear tests, and the tax money spent on nuclear weapons ($60 billion annually in the United States) instead of on education, infrastructure, and welfare. The queer lens prioritizes the rights and well-being of people over the abstract idea of national security, and it challenges the mainstream understanding of nuclear weapons—questioning whether they truly deter nuclear war, stabilize geopolitics, and reduce the likelihood of conventional war. Queer theory asks: Who created these ideas? How are they being upheld? Whose interests do they serve? And whose experiences are being excluded?”
The Biden-Harris administration passed an executive order in June 2021 that established “a government-wide initiative to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in all parts of the Federal workforce,” one that forced federal agencies to review “whether employees who are members of underserved communities face barriers to employment, promotion, or professional development within their workforce.” DOE now requires grant applicants to list information about their DEI efforts through Promoting Inclusive and Equitable Research Plans, in which they must detail their strategies “to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in their research projects.”