Media Spotlight: Dan Choi
February 15th, 2010 | Published in Media Monday
Some people actively look to work for a special cause. For others, it’s something that is thrust upon them. Our focus of this week’s Media Spotlight, Activist edition, is Army National Guard Lt. Dan Choi.
Born in 1981, Choi was a West Point Military Academy graduate who holds degrees in both Arabic and Environmental Engineering served actively in Iraq and then transferred out of active duty into the New York Army National Guard, 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry based out of Manhattan.
In March of 2009, Lt Choi went on The Rachel Maddow Show to talk about the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. It was also live on air where he publicly announced that he was gay. Soon after, he was told he would be discharged. He responded to this expected development on The Rachel Maddow Show once again and gave his reaction to the discharge letter he had received:
Well, when I got the letter, I was extremely angry. I was angry — I mean, the letter is basically saying bottom line, Lieutenant Dan Choi, you’re fired. You’re a West Point graduate, you’re fired. You’re an Arabic linguist, you’re fired. You deployed to Iraq, you’re willing to deploy again, doesn’t matter. Because you’re gay, that’s enough grounds to kick you out.
Since his discharge, Choi has become a high profile activist in the LGBT scene speaking out in response to California’s Proposition 8 as well as being a founding member of Knights Out, an organization of West Point graduates who support LGBT rights and works to educate members of the military on the need to allow highly qualified gay and lesbian troops to serve.
As of now, Lt Choi has been unexpectedly called back to duty. While officially having been sent a discharge letter, the state of flux that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is currently in means it may never be fully enforced.
Knights Out
Rachel Maddow Show Transcript with Lt Choi’s coming out
