Joseph Charles Steffan was born on July 29,1964 and is an American lawyer and gay activist.
17 Facts About Joseph Steffan
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2.
Joseph Steffan was expelled from the US Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1987 shortly before graduation after disclosing his homosexuality.
3.
Joseph Steffan lost a protracted court battle for reinstatement in 1994.
4.
Joseph Steffan was born on July 29,1964, in Warren, Minnesota, to a family of Scandinavian stock.
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Joseph Steffan was raised a Roman Catholic and was a choir boy.
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Joseph Steffan was inducted into the US Naval Academy in Annapolis in July 1983.
7.
Joseph Steffan determined he was gay during his second year there.
8.
Joseph Steffan was expelled from the academy six weeks before graduation.
9.
On December 29,1988, Joseph 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.
10.
Joseph Steffan claimed his equal protection and due process rights had been violated.
11.
On March 11,1991, Joseph Steffan's attorneys asked Gasch to disqualify himself based on the prejudice evidenced by his language.
12.
On Inauguration Day, January 20,1993, Joseph Steffan sang the national anthem at the Triangle Ball, a gala for homosexuals celebrating the beginning of Bill Clinton's presidency.
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Joseph Steffan's replies are careful, a mix of natural Midwestern reserve and lobbyist's savvy.
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Government attorneys debated how to proceed, given the narrowness of the decision and uncertainty about its application to the military's new DADT policy, which had replaced the rules under which Joseph Steffan had been discharged.
15.
Since the Court of Appeals had ordered that Joseph Steffan be awarded his commission, they proposed to argue that, since only the President can award a commission with the consent of the Senate, the court's order violated the principle of separation of powers.
16.
At the beginning of 1995, Joseph Steffan declined to appeal the decision to the US Supreme Court.
17.
Joseph Steffan donated his papers related to his suit for reinstatement in the Navy to the University of Connecticut Law School archives.