News |

Gay former soldier speaks at UMaine about being discharged

Posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009, 1:44 am

E-mail

Tell us what you think!
Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell goes against the values taught by the U.S. military, according to an openly gay army lieutenant who spoke at the University of Maine on Oct. 29.

Lt. Daniel Choi spoke in the Bangor Room of the Memorial Union as part of Coming Out Week, a sequence of events sponsored by Wilde Stein. Choi is a 2003 graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point who served an extended tour of duty in Iraq from 2006 to 2007.

While he first thought of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell as “the greatest thing in the world” because it kept him from having to come out to those around him, Choi said that feeling changed when he met his first boyfriend, Matthew.

“I understood what the movies were talking about, what Beyoncé was singing about” Choi said. “[Falling in love] made me a better person. … It made me a better soldier.”

The army discharged Choi by letter in March 2009 after an appearance on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” during which he revealed his sexual orientation while speaking out against President Barack Obama’s lack of action toward repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

“I only told my mom, my dad and Rachel Maddow,” Choi said.

Choi said one of the worst things about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is that “lying under [this policy] goes against the very first things we learn at West Point and in the army … those values of honesty, integrity and courage.”

After coming out on national television, Choi received a letter from the U.S. Department of Defense stating he was “incompatible with military service” and “adversely affects the ability of the armed forces to maintain discipline, good order and morale.” In a letter to Obama, he called the discharge papers “a slap in the face to me, a slap in the face to my soldiers, peers and leaders who have demonstrated that an infantry unit can be professional enough to accept diversity.”

Choi told his UMaine audience about various soldiers he had spoken to since his appearance on “The Rachel Maddow Show” whom his candor has helped. An e-mail he received from a fellow soldier stated: “I was about to drive my Humvee off a cliff. … I didn’t know how to continue on with my deployment because I’m gay, and then I saw you coming out.”

“It’s our responsibility to tell because … you never know if that person hears that message just at the right time,” Choi said.

“We need to worry about those who are young and are growing up and need us to step up,” Choi said, rebutting the idea among the older GLBT community that “sometimes it’s OK to be patient about who we are, about telling others who we are.”

If the GLBT community does not work hard enough to ensure equal rights, Choi said they will have to answer to the next generation, which will be asking, “What did you do in 2009 when the battle was yours to be fought?” Choi said.

Along with fellow West Point alumni, staff and faculty, Choi help set up Knights Out — a community for openly GLBT soldiers. Its Web site is knightsout.org.