Openly gay Lt. Dan Choi tweeted on
Tuesday that he's reenlisted in the Army.
Choi is the gay rights activists
honorably discharged from the Army for
announcing more than a year ago on MSNBC's The
Rachel Maddow Show
that he's gay, a violation of the military's “Don't Ask, Don't
Tell” policy that bans open gay service. He lost a final appeal to
his discharge in July.
“I'm headed to the Times Square
Recruiting Station,” he tweeted to his more than eight thousand
followers.
“I'm gonna try to enlist in the
Marines today,” he added.
Choi, however, later messaged,
“Apparently I'm too old for the Marines!”
And at approximately 6:45PM EST, Choi
said that he had reenlisted in the Army.
On Tuesday, the
Pentagon announced it would accept openly gay recruits, so long as a
federal court's injunction prohibiting it from enforcing the ban
remains in place.
Over the past year, Choi has grabbed
headlines protesting the policy. He's
twice been arrested after handcuffing himself to the White House
fence. And was among a handful of protesters arrested for
blocking traffic on the Las Vegas strip with a large banner that
read: “REID NO ONE CAN DO MORE?” a reference to Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid.
Days later, at Netroots Nation, Reid
promised Choi he'd repeal the policy.