Gay West Point Grads Target Ban on Serving Openly

As a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy, Dan Choi faced an ethical dilemma.

This photo provided by Becky Kanis shows Kanis posing during a peacekeeping mission to Haiti in 1995...

This photo provided by Becky Kanis shows Kanis posing during a peacekeeping mission to Haiti in 1995 while serving in the Army's Signal Corps. Kanis, a 1991 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, is a founding member of Knights Out, a newly formed association of gay and lesbian West Point alumni.

(Courtesy Becky Kanis/AP Photo )

The academy's honor code was clear, beginning "A cadet will not lie." Yet as a gay man, Choi felt bound by the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy to be untruthful about who he was.

Last month, six years after his graduation and two years after serving in Iraq, Choi came out — even though he remains an infantry officer in the Army National Guard.

His announcement in mid-March was part of the launch of Knights Out, the first association representing gay and lesbian alumni of West Point. Already, it has at least 50 members who've publicly identified themselves on the group's Web site.

Its stated mission is to advocate for repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" so that gays can serve openly in the military, and to help prepare the West Point community to be effective leaders after that policy change occurs.

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Under the policy, which President Barack Obama says he wants to repeal after consultation with the Pentagon, the military does not ask recruits about their sexual orientation, while service members are banned from saying they are gay or engaging in homosexual activity.

"Forcing people to lie — it's absolutely a morally bankrupt idea," Choi said in a telephone interview from his home in Orange County, California.

The chair of Knights Out's board, Becky Kanis, has bitter memories of being investigated while at West Point on suspicion that she was a lesbian. She graduated in 1991 and served contentedly for nine years in the Signal Corps, but said she eventually grew tired of the need to deceive.

"I started to feel immature — I was too grown up to be lying about where I spent the weekend," she said.

Kanis now lives in New York City, working for an institute that combats homelessness.

She believes the end of "don't ask, don't tell" is imminent, and hopes Knights Out will be well positioned to serve after repeal as a resource on how the military can deal with gay/lesbian issues.