Cammermeyer v. Aspin

As the highest ranking and most highly decorated officer ever to have been discharged for homosexual status from any branch of the U.S. armed forces, Cammermeyer's case represents a milestone for those lesbians and gays who "serve in silence" and for those who support their efforts.

Margarethe Cammermeyer's fitness to serve as a nurse in the U.S. military seemed completely self-evident from her record, which included a Bronze Star for distinguished service in Vietnam. That the government ordered her discharge following her statement that she was a lesbian--and ordered it over the protests of her immediate supervisors and Washington governor Booth Gardner, commander-in-chief of the Washington State National Guard--prompted intense media attention and public debate as to the merits of the military's exclusionary policies.