Claim: Zoe Dunning, a Navy vessel commander, announced she was lesbian after another service member announced they were homosexual as well, leading to Dunning being recommended for honorable discharge.
Evidence: In the Navy, the Coast Guard, the NOAA Corps, and the Public Health Service Corps, commander (abbreviated "CDR") is a senior-grade officer rank, with the pay grade of O-5. A commander in the Navy may command a frigate, destroyer, submarine, aviation squadron or small shore activity, or may serve on a staff afloat or ashore (typically as an action officer or as an executive officer to a flag officer or general officer), or a larger vessel afloat (as either a department head or executive officer). An officer in the rank of commander who commands a vessel may also be referred to as "captain" as a courtesy title, or informally referred to as "skipper." Meinhold acknowledged his gay status on ABC's World News Tonight on May 19, 1992. In January 1993, while a student at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, she announced her homosexuality at a rally in support of Petty Officer Keith Meinhold, saying, "I am both a naval officer and a lesbian, and I refuse to live a lie anymore." On June 10, 1993, a three-member Navy administrative board recommended that she be honorably discharged despite arguments that the action violated a federal judge's ruling the previous winter.