Military board recommends discharge of Lt. Dan Choi for violating DADT
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Unfortunately, this is not a surprise.
A military administrative board has recommended a discharge for Lt. Dan Choi who violated the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy by coming out on the Rachel Maddow Show last March. From Syracuse.com…
A four-officer panel meeting at Hancock Air Base notified Choi at about 5 p.m. that it would recommend he be discharged because he has publicly said he is gay.
The recommendation now goes to Lt. Gen. Thomas Miller of the First Army Division, and Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, who will make the final decision.
“Today was a setback for me,” Choi said at a 6:10 p.m. news conference. “I got in trouble for saying three words. ‘I am gay.'”
But he said he refuses to lie about being involved in a relationship with another man. Choi said the relationship has made him a better person, a better Christian and a better officer.
Choi, an Arabic-speaking officer who served for 15 months in Iraq as a member of Fort Drum’s 10th Mountain Division before joining a New York National Guard unit based in Manhattan, said he would appeal to the higher-ranking officers to stay in the National Guard.
And an update from tonight’s Rachel Maddow Show:
The discharge process may take up to one year, and Choi may lose veteran benefits as a result.
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