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| Lt. Dan Choi chose not to hide, but the end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell didn’t come soon enough for him. Photo by Rink. |
Little more than a year after he came out publicly, Lieutenant Dan Choi has been officially fired from the Army as a result of “Don’t Ask/ Don’t Tell,” the anti-gay ban on openly serving in the military. An Iraq war veteran and West Point graduate from Orange County, Choi was honorably discharged on July 22 by Brigadier General Patrick Murphy (no relation to Congressman Patrick Murphy, also an Iraq veteran who has been fighting to repeal DA/DT). Choi had announced he was gay on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show a year and four months ago on March 19. He had been waiting for military officials to decide whether he would be discharged.
According to Newsweek, Choi got the call from his commander at the 1/69 Infantry Regiment of the New York Army National Guard, and it was nothing but bad news. Choi had also just learned from another source...