USNA Out

Since the time of Stephen Decatur, the need for homosexual naval officers to interrelate for mutual support has always existed. Although many “underground” networks long existed in port cities such as San Diego and Newport, they remained a difficult alternative to communicating in the same frank and public manner available to their heterosexual shipmates. It was the power of the internet that finally gave the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender alumni the ability to find each other in a safe and secure forum.

In 1991, a group of former midshipmen and cadets founded SAGALA, a nationwide organization of alumni from all five federal service academies. SAGALA continues to be the primary social network of the LGBT service academy alumni, including LGBT midshipmen/cadets at the service academies and commissioned officers continuing to serve on active duty. The organization has served well as a support network for its members.

In 2003, 31 Naval Academy alumni, led by Jeff Petrie (pee-tree), formed a new group which took the SAGALA concept one step further; they began an effort to re-establish their relationship with the Naval Academy and the school's alumni association as openly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender alumni. The group took the name “USNA Out.” As word filtered through the LGBT community about the organization, interest and membership grew.

On November 11, 2003, using the RV chapter of the Alumni Association as a model for a nationwide chapter of alumni that share a common interest, the USNA Out alumni applied for recognition as an official chapter of the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association. Unfortunately, the proposed bylaws for the proposed chapter contained mission objectives which were not in conformance with the Mission of the Alumni Association. Three weeks later, the USNA Alumni Association Board of Trustees unanimously rejected the proposed chapter’s application on the grounds that it was “a special interest chapter” and “not geographically based.” This was a somewhat confusing rejection for the applicants, as at the time, the RV chapter proudly proclaimed on their chapter website that they were “the only nation-wide chapter for those alumni that had a special interest in Recreational Vehicles.”

Given the guidance provided in this first rejection, the alumni of USNA Out regrouped and formed a chapter geographically based in the Castro of San Francisco, a once predominantly gay neighborhood of San Francisco, but now one of the most exclusive and conservative neighborhoods in Northern California (only $1.2 million moves you in!) The neighborhood is home to about a dozen of the USNA Out members and a “second home” to many of the others. In December, 2004, this second application for a chapter was rejected, again for being a “special interest” chapter and because many of the members did not have a primary residence in the Castro.

In June 2007, the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco opened an exhibit "Gays in the Military." Several USNA Out members were prominently featured in the exhibit's displays. From the interest developed from this exhibit, USNA Out founding member Steve Clark Hall began the USNA Out member profiles project, the "Faces of USNA Out." This project for the first time put a real face on who the LGBT Alumni of the U. S. Naval Academy really were.

What does the future hold? The debate within USNA Out of chapter recognition vs another form of formally recognized association is mostly dead. None of the other “model schools” that compete for the same candidates as the Naval Academy has an LGBT “Chapter” or “Club.” However, all these “model schools” do have strong LGBT organizations which are officially recognized by their respective alumni associations. The LGBT alumni groups can be found within three to four clicks from the alumni associations’ home page.