A recent hire at the nuclear security wing of the Department of Energy has previously called for disarmament policies – which reduce or eliminate nuclear weapons – arguing that advancing “queer theory” was essential to that agenda as well as important to America’s national security.
The Biden-Harris administration announced Sneha Nair had been appointed as special assistant at the National Nuclear Security Administration in February 2024. Nair believes in eradicating purported “White supremacy” in the nuclear field as well as “queering nuclear weapons” as part of a diversity, equity and inclusion push she believes is essential for deterring threats to nuclear energy facilities in the U.S.
“Finally, queer theory informs the struggle for nuclear justice and disarmament,” she wrote last year. “Queer theory helps to shift the perception of nuclear weapons as instruments for security by telling the hidden stories of displacement, illness, and trauma caused by their production and testing.”