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Lt. Dan Choi Reactivated For Deployment By New York National Guard
02/09/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Word has come down via Bilerico that Lt. Dan Choi has been called back to duty. This is an unusual event given that Lt. Choi is openly gay, and it has been recommended that he be discharged from the military for being so. Unlike Colonel Victor Fehrenbach, Choi’s homosexuality was personally disclosed instead of him being outed by a third party. Lt. Choi has been a vocal advocate for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and has been featured on The Rachel Maddow Show and recently introduced Senator Kirsten Gillibrand before her speech to the Human Rights Campaign’s New York Gala. Choi is a member of the New York National Guard, which means that he is not full time military. He is currently based in Manhattan.
Lt. Choi is an Arabic translator. His skills in the current conflicts are vital to mission success, especially given the startling fact that so many of the military’s Arabic languages linguists are gay or lesbian and that many have been discharged under DADT. Lt. Choi has the full support of his commanding officer who did not push for him to be discharged from the military. Instead, the Army National Guard ultimately had to go around his commanding officer to serve Choi with his discharge notification. Choi appealed, and while the recommendation is that he be discharged under DADT, the military has not finalized his discharge. It remains to be seen whether or not they will finalize the discharge before Choi is deployed again.
As it currently stands, a bare majority of service members, some fifty-one percent, support keeping Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in place. The rest either support its repeal or do not feel strongly enough about this issue to have a stated opinion on it. This is a dramatic drop from the sixty-three percent of service personnel who supported DADT in 2003. Part of the political push to end DADT is that the policy forces the military to replace able bodied soldiers in a time of war, thus upping the number of people who have to be recruited every year. This in turn costs the tax payer more money as there are recruitment bonuses, training costs, and discharge costs associated with removing and replacing a gay or lesbian soldier from the military. In some cases, replacing soldiers such as Colonel Victor Fehrenbach and Lt. Choi can be almost impossible due to their skill sets and experience.
Lt. Choi’s redeployment came to light when he was not able to attend the NGLTF Creating Change conference where he was suppose to lead a Knights Out workshop.
Photo via Wikipedia
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11 Responses to Lt. Dan Choi Reactivated For Deployment By New York National Guard
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Sue Fulton
February 11, 2010 at 9:16 am
There is a bit of confusion about Dan Choi’s return to his National Guard unit this past weekend.
Dan is a member of the New York National Guard. He appeared at a hearing where a board recommended he be discharged. That recommendation requires review and approval at higher levels. Dan’s discharge has never been finalized.
After his board recommended discharge, Dan was not included in regular drill… until recently. This past week, his commander – who has always been supportive of Dan – contacted him to rejoin his unit in weekend drill.
This is not the same as “active duty” – National Guard units CAN be activated, or called to active duty, but Dan’s unit has not.
This is not a change in Army policy, nor any action from “higher headquarters” that we are aware of. I would view it as a recognition by his unit that Dan’s discharge may, after all, NOT be confirmed by the Army.
That said, Dan’s unit welcomed him back, and he spent a very full weekend practicing Infantry tactics and lifesaving procedures with them. Dan has never lost the respect of his fellow Soldiers, even as an out Gay man, and he will continue to do his job as an Infantry officer for as long as he is allowed.
- Sue Fulton, West Point ’80, Communications Director, Knights Out
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tophtheearthbender
February 9, 2010 at 7:03 pm
And also just to add another note. I also think that they are reinstating him, hoping that it doesn’t give him a reason to fight for his right not to loose his job because of his sexual orientation. They’re hoping that he is too busy in his duty to his country to continue to fight for gay and lesbian military rights. Which if were to happen, might cause discord amongst the very people who saw Dan as their leader in the fight against DADT.
Unless the military starts letting all LGBT serve openly from now on, I can’t fathom any good intentions being the basis of reinstating a gay man back to his natural guard position.
tophtheearthbender
February 9, 2010 at 6:45 pm
I think it’s great that Lt. Choi has gotten his job back. However, I don’t believe that he was reinstated based on good intentions. I believe that the vast majority of military leaders oppose repealing DADT, and Lt. Dan is the one leading the charge to have it repealed. Not only that, but he actually is making a difference. Therefore it is only logical that you remove the leader of the ‘repeal DADT’ movement, so that their progress slows down dramatically. But to reinstate him back into the line of duty also causes people to believe that change is coming real soon for gays in the military, and so it might slow down the intense pressuring of Govt officials to repeal DADT.
That way you cause people to let their guard down by letting them think that they are winning. It’s quite clever, and it is what I think their reason was for reinstating him back to duty. But that’s just my opinion.
Tedd
February 9, 2010 at 5:21 pm
I believe the 51% support quoted in this article comes from a Military Times survey, and it includes not only active duty personnel, but also veterans, which tend to skew more conservative than those on active duty.
Sei
February 9, 2010 at 5:51 pm
You are correct as to the source of that information, Tedd. I have been using it for the last few days, and did make a link, I believe, in one of the articles. I tend to have a lot of information in my head at any given time, and sometimes I do not recite information when I’ve cited it before unless asked to do so.
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Kevin
February 9, 2010 at 2:43 pm
When the military needs “the gays” it’s OK — Guess “we” will be saving their asses yet again — Ironic huh!
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