Joseph Steffan

Joseph Charles Steffan (born July 29, 1964) is an American lawyer and gay activist.

Joseph Steffan was born on July 29, 1964, in Warren, Minnesota, to a family of Scandinavian stock.

He was raised a Roman Catholic and was a choir boy.

He was inducted into the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis in July 1983.

He determined he was gay during his second year there.

In his First Class (senior) year he was promoted to a battalion commander, placing him in command of one-sixth of the academy's 4,500 midshipmen and among the top ten highest-ranking midshipmen in the academy.

He twice sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Army–Navy games.

After he told another midshipman and a chaplain that he was homosexual, the academy conducted an investigation and Steffan told a disciplinary board that he was homosexual.

The board then changed his performance evaluation from "A" to "F" and recommended that he be discharged.

He was expelled from the academy six weeks before graduation.

He never admitted, nor was he was accused of, engaging in sex with another man.

He was expelled from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1987 shortly before graduation after disclosing his homosexuality.

He sued the U.S. Department of Defense, claiming that his oral avowal of homosexuality could not be construed as an indication that he ever had or intended to engage in sexual relations with another man.

In a letter to the New York Times dated August 23, 1988, he wrote: "the real problem is not homosexuality, but rather, the military's open and officially supported prejudice against homosexuals who have the desire and capability to serve their country."

On December 29, 1988, Steffan, represented by the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, filed suit in United States District Court for the District of Columbia asking it to order the Department of Defense to reinstate him.

He claimed his equal protection and due process rights had been violated.

At the time, he was working in Fargo, North Dakota, for a computer software company.

When his deposition was taken, Steffan refused to respond to questions about whether he had ever "engaged in homosexual acts" as defined by the Navy: "Bodily contact actively undertaken or passively permitted between members of the same sex for the purpose of satisfying sexual desires."

He also refused to discuss other aspects of his behavior, including why he had himself tested several times for HIV.

Based on that refusal, U.S. District Judge Oliver Gasch dismissed the suit on November 15, 1989.

A panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed Gasch on December 7, 1990.

Its decision said: "That [Steffen] seeks reinstatement as relief for an allegedly invalid separation does not put into issue the question whether he engaged in potentially disqualifying conduct unless such conduct was a basis for his separation."

During a hearing on March 5, 1991, Gasch used the term "homo" several times to refer to Steffan or to homosexuals generally.

On March 11, 1991, Steffan's attorneys asked Gasch to disqualify himself based on the prejudice evidenced by his language.

In April, Gasch refused to disqualify himself.

On December 9, 1991, Gasch ruled in favor of the Department of Defense in the case of Steffan v. Cheney.

His decision held that the government's exclusion of homosexuals from the Armed Forces "is rational in that it is directed, in part, at preventing those who are at the greatest risk of dying of AIDS from serving. This is understandable in light of the overall mission of defending the nation. The interest we as a Nation have in a healthy military cannot be underestimated."

Neither party to the case had mentioned AIDS in its briefs.

At the time, the U.S. military denied enlistment to applicants who tested positive for HIV and gave medical discharges to servicemembers who became infected with HIV only when they could no longer perform their assigned duties.

According to the New York Times, "As of September, 1,888 members of the military who had tested positive for the virus were still on duty."

Gasch also found the policy reflected "The quite rational assumption in the Navy ... that with no one present who has a homosexual orientation, men and women alike can undress, sleep, bathe and use the bathroom without fear or embarrassment that they are being viewed as sexual objects."

On October 6, 1992, while serving as co-chairman of the Gay and Lesbian Law Students Association there, he and other students, with the support of the law school dean and represented by American Civil Liberties Union, asked a Connecticut state court to ban military recruiting on their campus because the military's ban on service by gays and lesbians violated the state statute that banned discrimination based on sexual orientation.

He told a reporter that given his experience in the Navy having military recruiters on campus was "like someone kicking you in the stomach."

In late 1992, Steffan published his autobiography, Honor Bound.

Herbert Mitgang wrote that "What makes the book particularly readable is his account of discovering his homosexuality."

On Inauguration Day, January 20, 1993, Steffan sang the national anthem at the Triangle Ball, a gala for homosexuals celebrating the beginning of Bill Clinton's presidency.

While awaiting the resolution of his lawsuit, Steffan finished college at North Dakota State University and entered the University of Connecticut School of Law.

Steffan began his third year of law school in the fall of 1993.

In a newspaper profile that appeared in February 1993, Steffan carefully edited his statements to avoid affecting his lawsuit: "Because he is afraid of undercutting his lawsuit against the Government ... he portrays himself as purer than pure, refusing even to answer whether he has a boyfriend. His replies are careful, a mix of natural Midwestern reserve and lobbyist's savvy."

He lost a protracted court battle for reinstatement in 1994.