Judge Won’t Quit Case of Gay Dismissed by Naval Academy

A federal judge Friday refused to remove himself from the case of a homosexual challenging his dismissal from the U. S. Naval Academy, saying he meant no offense when he called the plaintiff a “homo” in court.

U. S. District Judge Oliver Gasch, in denying a motion by plaintiff Joseph C. Steffan to disqualify the judge from the case, disputed Steffan’s contention that the word is pejorative.

“The present definition appears to be that the word ‘homo’ is a slang shortening of the word homosexual and that it is often used disparagingly,” the judge said in his ruling.

“In using the term, the court equated the term with homosexual,” Gasch said. “No offense was intended by the use of the word. The court’s use of the word ‘homo’ was not intended as a gratuitous insult (and) did not indicate any hostility.”

Steffan’s attorney, Sandra Lowe of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York, said she was “disappointed that he does not see the harm in the term.” But she said she was “gratified that he says he did not intend in any way to be pejorative.”

Steffan, who was dismissed from the Naval Academy six weeks before he was to graduate in 1987, filed suit to challenge the policy barring homosexuals from military service.

Gasch, a senior federal judge, used the word “homo” three times during a March 6 hearing, which Steffan did not attend.

At one point during the hearing, the judge wanted to know the basis on which Steffan was challenging his dismissal from the academy.

“That he’s a homo and knows other homos. Is that it?” the judge said, according to a transcript of the hearing.

Also, during a discussion of documents the plaintiff’s attorneys were seeking, Gasch said: “The most I would allow is what relates to this plaintiff, not every homo that may be walking the face of the Earth at this time.”