Great Courage: Speaking Out About DADT on The Rachel Maddow Show

On Thursday and Friday of this week, Dr. Rachel Maddow interviewed Lt. Dan Choi of the United States Army. Lt. Choi is also a member of the organization called Knights Out. A graduate of West Point, Lt. Choi risked his military career to say on national television three words “I am gay.” He risked his career to speak out on the policy known as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

The policy known as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has crippled our military in many ways. In January, eleven soldiers were discharged from the Army because of this policy. Knights Out, an organization made up of West Point Graduates, seeks to help the military adjust when DADT is finally brought down. DADT dates back to the Clinton administration. It was President Bill Clinton’s attempt, as Dr. Maddow put it, “to navigate the minefield” that is homosexuals serving openly in the military. President Clinton, at the time, actually believed that the policy was simply a stop gap measure to let the military hierarchy adjust to the idea of gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. I will point out that transgenders, specifically transsexuals, cannot serve openly in the military due to the psychological classification that transpeople fall into. That may change with medical research.

Lt. Choi is a NY National Guard platoon leader, an Iraq veteran, and an Arab linguist. In an era when we need as many people who can speak Arabic in the war zone, Lt. Choi risks being removed from a military that needs him, or he must suffer the indignity of being a second-class citizen. What is worse, as Lt. Choi pointed out, he must also violate the very ethos that he was instilled with at West Point including that he must not lie.

What follows is the interview from Friday.

Bridget “Sei” McBride is a trans-lesbian who lives in Vermont and has a strong passion for LGBTI rights. She has a BA in History and her hobbies include sci-fi, anime, fantasy, action movies, video games, and more. Currently, she is working on her MA in Individualized Studies at Goddard College. Her specialization is in cultural history and cultural comparison.