Nation : Gay Ex-Middie Seeks Reinstatement

WASHINGTON — A former midshipman at the Naval Academy who says he was forced to resign nearly two years ago after admitting his homosexuality filed suit in U.S. District Court here today seeking his reinstatement.

Joseph Steffan, 24, who now works for a computer software company in Fargo, N.D., charged in the suit that his resignation under the threat that he would be dismissed violated his constitutional rights to due process and equal protection of the law. Paula L. Ettelbrick, legal director for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a New York-based advocacy group for gay rights, said the suit is the first of its kind that she knows of challenging the military service academies’ prohibitions of homosexuality.