Lt. Dan Choi, Arabic Specialist, Discharged For Stating He's Gay + Daily Show Debate

Earlier this month, Lt. Dan Choi, a West Point graduate, Iraq-war Veteran and Arabic language specialist, was discharged from the US Army for publicly admitting he was gay. President Obama has publicly stated that the he does not support "Don't Ask Don't Tell", the policy of the US Armed Forces, and that he would like to see it repealed one day. Unfortunately, it does not seem that our President plans to do this anytime soon as his administration has already confirmed that they will not intervene in Choi's discharge. Over the past 15 years, 12,500 members of the US Armed Forces (including some 50 language specialists) have been discharged from the Army because of violation of "Don't Ask Don't Tell".

I was particularly interested in Choi's comments that one of the most infuriating aspects of his discharge is the insult to his platoon. It's very easy to associate this policy as the majority viewpoint of those that serve, when the reality is both much more encouraging: that those in the Armed Forces care more about the capability and contribution of individuals to the team and unit as a whole, than they do about said individual's sexual orientation. Thus, the continued discharge of openly-gay Armed Forces members seems likely to be a policy carried out from the top-down, and not necessarily the result of negative performance impacts from this disclosure. I would find it impossible to argue that his Army unit (and the rebuilding efforts as a whole) would be better served by not having Choi, an Arabic language specialist, serving in Iraq because of his admission.

I also strongly respect and agree with his first-hand input that "Don't Ask Don't Tell" is wrong, and what instead should be encouraged is, "Don't Lie, Don't Hide, Don't Discriminate, and Don't Weaken the Military". What do you think?

Here is a heated debate between Jon Stewart and John Oliver regarding the discharge. This probably wouldn't be so funny if this wasn't so ridiculously serious and ass-backwards given our current obligations in the Middle East.

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Dan Choi Is Gay
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