Few midshipmen at Annapolis shone as brightly as Joseph Steffan. He not only ranked among the top 10 in his class at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1987 but as a battalion commander, had under his command one-sixth of the school's students. Then, just six weeks before graduation, Steffan told a fellow midshipman that he was gay. Although there was no evidence that Steffan had ever engaged in a homosexual act, a disciplinary board determined that his sexual orientation was reason enough for discharge. Academy officials downgraded Steffan's military performance from A to F, and Steffan was forced to resign.
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