His fight between 1971 and 1974 over a series of transfers and dismissals by authorities from his public school teaching assignments based upon his acknowledged homosexuality involved litigation through the federal court system; expert witness court testimony on the effect of an openly gay teacher on his students; extensive media coverage, including an "episode appearance" on CBS 60 Minutes; a "morality investigation" by the Penn State University Teacher Certification Council; and active participation of his parents in the public debate.

Acanfora entered Pennsylvania State University in fall 1968, with the intent to major in meteorology and participate in the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps.

[2] At the end of his sophomore year, Acanfora realized he wanted to teach and decided to major in secondary education.

That school system and Penn State immediately suspended his student teaching status upon learning of his homosexuality and membership in HOPS.

[5] This issue became a subject of great campus, county, and statewide controversy, including an interrogation of Acanfora by six Penn State deans who made up the University Teacher Certification Council.

When the Council deadlocked 3–3 on whether or not Acanfora possessed a "good moral character", the matter was referred to the then Pennsylvania Secretary of Education, John C. Pittenger, for decision.

[6] With his Pennsylvania status in this undecided posture, Acanfora sought and found employment as a teacher with the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland.

In later court trials, Acanfora would admit that "...he realized that this information would be significant, but he believed disclosure would foreclose his opportunity to be considered for employment on an equal basis with other applicants.

Acanfora was rated above average in each of the seven categories contained on the form (appearance, personality, verbal expression, knowledge of subject area, enthusiasm for teaching, references, and scholarship).

Despite this caution, Acanfora was hired without further interviewing by the Assistant Principal of Parkland Junior High School in Rockville, Maryland, and entered into a one-year teaching contract.

[8] On Friday, September 22, 1972, Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Pittenger called a press conference to announce that he had decided to certify Acanfora.

Miedema, in turn, addressed a memo to the Board of Education advising that "one of the alternatives which we are exploring is the reassignment of Mr. Acanfora with full salary, to a position that does not require contact with youngsters."

"[6] Acanfora's "temporary alternate work assignment" was an office job created for him in which his duties largely were "make-work."

Although Acanfora's salary was not reduced, the district court would find later that the transfer breached the "clearly implied promise of continued employment in a classroom teaching capacity for the duration of [his] contract."

At trial in Baltimore Federal District Court, Miedema explained the factors which prompted him to transfer Acanfora.

Finally, Miedema was worried about "community concern and reaction" to the newspaper disclosures that a homosexual was teaching in the school.

The experts feared that a "relatively few" students who enter adolescence with "extreme emotional disturbances" might be so impressed with Acanfora as a teacher that they would seek to emulate him in all respects, and thus decide to become homosexuals.

Declaring that "the time has come today for private, consenting, adult homosexuality to enter the sphere of constitutionally protectible interests", the court ruled that one's right to be a homosexual is protected by the First Amendment's freedom of association and by the right of privacy enunciated by this Court in, inter alia, Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973).

While it would be "premature to state definitively that Acanfora's presence in the classroom would have no deleterious effect", the risk, albeit "not illusory", "does not seem as great or as likely as defendants have assumed".

Acanfora had a "clearly implied promise of continued employment in a classroom teaching capacity for the duration of [his] contract", and thus a property interest which could not be taken away without procedural due process.

Additionally, the precipitous transfer was "an implicit allegation that his homosexuality determines unfitness to teach", and thus interfered with his liberty interests.

With respect to the substantive violations, the court held that Acanfora's post-transfer appearances on radio and television programs disqualified him from entitlement to relief.

With respect to the procedural due process violations, the district court thought them cured by the de nova trial which Acanfora received in his lawsuit: "The parties have shifted their attention to the plenary hearing in this forum".

Acanfora had argued that these cases were inapposite "because the school officials transferred him on account of his homosexuality, not the omission from his application".

The court noted that at trial the Superintendent had testified that the omission was one of the reasons which made him unwilling to reinstate Acanfora, and concluded that this was sufficient to warrant application of the "lying to the Government" cases.