West Point LGBT group

West Point graduates launch an LGBT alumni group.

Yesterday, a group of West Point alumni came out of the closet in order to form Knights Out, an LGBT alumni organization pushing for the repeal of the ban on gays serving openly in the U.S. military and hoping to serve as an “open forum” for LGBT alumni and their fellow graduates. From the group’s press release:

By publicly outing themselves, the 38 members of Knights Out ended once and for all the anonymity that has obscured from full view their service to the nation as West Point graduates. Knights Out seeks to reduce the stigma associated with sexual diversity by providing an open forum for discussion between out LGBT West Point graduates and their fellow alumni. Knights Out is well-positioned to help West Point maintain its status as the world’s premier leadership institution by swiftly and effectively adapting to the end of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which Knights Out believes is both imminent and inevitable.

The Advocate notes that Knights Out “joins similar groups formed by graduates of the U.S. Naval and Air Force academies, including the U.S. Naval Academy’s USNA Out and the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Blue Alliance.”

(Think Progress)