After having a relationship with another private at Singleton's barracks in the 1980s, Anna van Netten, now 64, was told she could only keep her job in the army if she signed an agreement stating she would not have relationships with women for as long as she served.
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"My girlfriend was interviewed by the military police in Singleton. A couple of days later they took me to Victoria Barracks [in Sydney] and said, 'Did you have sex with this woman? How did you do it?'
"I was horrified by it, it was really intimidating," the Cessnock resident said.
"From then on I still went out with girls. I just made sure they were from outside of the barracks."
Ms van Netten's experiences from the period of 1973 to 1983, when she served in the army in Singleton and Sydney, form part of a current exhibition at Newcastle Library.
Serving in Silence explores how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex service personnel have navigated their careers in the Australian Defence Force.
It also charts how the Australian Defence Force has changed since repealing bans on gay and lesbian service personnel in 1992, and on transgender service personnel in 2010.
Ms van Netten, who now works as a marriage celebrant and taxi driver, spoke about her experiences at the "Not Silenced" forum event held at the library on Monday night with two other Hunter-based service people.
The event was convened by Associate Professor Noah Riseman of the Australian Catholic University, upon whose research the exhibition is partly based.
Associate Professor Riseman said that, based on the interviews he had conducted with 140 current and former LGBTI service personnel, experiences like Ms van Netten's were "very common" in the 70s and 80s.
"It seemed to become more widespread particularly in the 80s," he said.
"Interrogations that went on for hours, with often very personal questions about people's sex lives. They almost always ended in the discharging of the people who were interviewed."
He said the Australian Defence Force's treatment of lesbian, gay and bisexual people had "come a long way" since the 90s.
"In the case of transgender people, some people have had positive experiences but some haven't. There's more progress to be made.
"Since the changes to rules in 2010, there's been a much better pace of change," Associate Professor Riseman said.
The Serving in Silence exhibition will remain at the library's Local History Lounge until September 14.
The "Not Silenced" forum on Monday evening was the closing event of Newcastle Pride 2019.
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