Judge, Citing AIDS, Backs Military Homosexual Ban

A federal judge on Monday upheld the Pentagon ban on homosexuals in the military, saying the armed forces must have that power if they are to protect soldiers and sailors from AIDS.

Joseph C. Steffan, a Naval Academy midshipman who acknowledged that he was gay, had challenged the Defense Department policy as unconstitutional. But U.S. District Judge Oliver Gasch ruled that the regulations “rationally further legitimate state purposes.”

The policy promotes “the maintenance of discipline, morale, good order, a respected system of rank and command, a healthy military force, morality and respect for the privacy interests of both officers and the enlisted,” the judge ruled.

Steffan will appeal Gasch’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals, said Paula Ettelbrick, legal director of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York. The fund is a gay rights group representing the former midshipman.

“We find the decision distressing, but not a big surprise,” she said.

Last spring, Gasch referred to Steffan as a “homo” three times in a hearing. Gasch ruled that the fact that he used the word did not mean that he was biased, and an appellate court upheld his decision.

Steffan resigned from the U.S. Naval Academy in May, 1987, six weeks before graduation, after academy officials said he would not be allowed to graduate. He had disclosed days earlier that he was homosexual.

Steffan argued in his lawsuit that the Pentagon ban violated the equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment.

But Gasch disagreed, saying the Pentagon policy is aimed in part “at preventing those who are at the greatest risk of dying of AIDS from serving in the Navy and the other armed services.”

There was no evidence in Steffan’s case that he had had sexual relations with anybody, male or female.

Steffan was a midshipman in good standing when he learned that he was under investigation by the Naval Investigative Service for homosexuality. He acknowledged his homosexuality to a chaplain. The commandant of the academy then said graduation would not be possible because of regulations adopted in 1981 prohibiting homosexuals in the armed forces. Steffan resigned, but 18 months later sought to withdraw his resignation.

He said gay men and women constitute a “suspect” class of politically powerless people who are entitled to have the Pentagon regulations subjected to heightened scrutiny. Gasch disagreed.

“Homosexuals as a class enjoy a good deal of political power in our society. . . . It is beyond doubt that the homosexual community has been able to reach out and gain the attention of politicians of all sorts,” the judge declared in a 35-page opinion.

Ettelbrick called the judge’s statement “terribly ironic.”