Annapolis, MarylandIn a major blow to the efforts of 32 openly gay graduates of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, The Board of Trustees of the United States Naval Academy Alumni Association overwhelmingly rejected a proposal from graduates to form "USNA Out," an entity which would have been the nation's first officially recognized gay and lesbian alumni chapter of the U.S. Service Academy.

"Just by existing, I think we will be able to help current midshipmen by showing them we have been through it successfully," the group's founder, 29-year old former U.S. Navy officer Jeff Petrie, told MSNBC.

"It's a well-know fact the military has supported a disapproving and damaging environment for gay and lesbian midshipmen for decades," Petrie said.

"We don't have the power to change that, but we do have the power to make things a little easier," he said.

According to the Naval Academy Alumni Association's official statement, the group was not recognized because "the Alumni Association has never before chartered a special-interest chapter and does not want to begin that practice."

The Association said they will sanction chapters on the basis of geography.

However, Petrie noted the Association extended official recognition to at least one alumni chapter based on common interests - the official "Recreational Vehicle" chapter, which is not based on the chapter members' geographic location.

Petrie, with the support of UC Santa Barbara's Center for The Study of Sexual Minorities, or CSSMM, a research group studying sexual minorities in the military, has been trying to create an alumni group to assist lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered military personnel since he left the military in 1989.

"It sounds like there is good evidence the Association loaded it with their own rules designed to not recognize [the group]," Aaron Belkin, director of CSSMM and professor at the university in Santa Barbara told GFN.

"They say they denied the group based upon geography, but I doubt that was the case. What they are saying is gay sailors who risked their lives should not be recognized, but instead, recreational vehicles should," Belkin said.

"It's a symbolic gesture," Steve Ralls, director of communications for Service Members Legal Defense Network told GFN. "They are saying we [gays and lesbians] should stay in the shadows and that is not the message we should be sending."

The announcement from the Associate comes on the heels of the 10th anniversary of the military's notorious "Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy."

"Over 1,000,000 gay veterans are out there," Belkin said, citing a report authored by Gary Gates of the Urban Institute in Washington. "The reason the military does not recognize them is one simple reason; the military, as an organization, is homophobic. It's that simple."

Belkin said to GFN, "Look, they [the military] say lifting the ban will undermine military cohesion, but that's just not true, as my research has shown."

"In Britain [where they lifted the ban], two-thirds of the men interviewed prior to the ban being lifted said they would resign, and after it took place 3 quit. Three."