Army Lt. Dan Choi said Thursday that
the military has discharged him for announcing that he is gay.
“I have been discharged under DADT,”
Choi tweeted to his thousands of followers. “Our fight is just
beginning.”
Choi is one of the most outspoken
opponents of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell,” the military policy that
threatens gay troops with discharge if they do not remain celibate
and closeted.
Choi broke the policy when he appeared
more than a year ago on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show to
promote Knights Out, the nascent West Point graduate group that
lobbies for repeal of the policy. On the show, he announced that he
is gay.
A formal discharge arrived by mail on
May 6. In his discharge notification, the Army said Choi was being
discharged for “moral or professional dereliction.”
“Specifically, you admitted publicly
that you are a homosexual, which constitutes homosexual conduct,”
the notification said.
Choi appealed the decision even as he
took on greater visibility in the fight against the policy, getting
arrested twice for chaining himself to the White House fence in
protest. Charges
of failing to obey a police officer were later dropped.
But on Thursday, Choi confirmed to
Newsweek that he had been discharged: “I got a call about
five minutes ago, and my commander said he wanted me to hear it
directly from him.”
Choi was arrested
Wednesday in Las Vegas protesting Nevada Senator Harry Reid's
inaction on passage of gay workplace protections bill ENDA.