Rep. Patrick Murphy (D) of Pennsylvania has taken over as lead sponsor of house bill HR 1283, which would repeal the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy. Murphy is the first war veteran elected to Congress, having served in Bosnia (2002) and in Iraq (2003-2004) as a Captain in the Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division.

Unwilling to wait for the Obama administration to take action, this Wednesday Murphy will begin a public push to get DADT repealed before the end of the year.

Murphy spoke of his commitment to overturning DADT in Stars and Stripes:

“People ask why does an Irish-Catholic guy who’s straight and married care so much about [overturning] ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ ” he said. “And I tell them it’s because this is something I believe in. It’s a failed policy that hurts national security.

“We all knew people who we served with who were gay, and it didn’t affect their job,” he said. “It didn’t affect me personally. But they were discriminated against, and that shouldn’t be.”

This Wednesday Murphy will launch www.letthemserve.com, advocating for the repeal of DADT, detailing facts and myths about the policy.

Last year Murphy spoke eloquently against DADT during a subcommittee hearing. Despite his Freshman status, he will be a strong voice and a tremendous ally in the effort to repeal the policy. Watch:

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.

At a State Department briefing yesterday Department Spokesman Ian Kelley condemned acts of violence against gays and lesbians in Iraq.

Well, let me say that, in general, we absolutely condemn acts of violence and human rights violations committed against individuals in Iraq because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. This is an issue that we’ve been following very closely since we have been made aware of these allegations, and we are aware of the allegations.

Our training for Iraqi security forces includes instruction on the proper observance of human rights. Human rights training is also a very important part of our and other international donors’ civilian capacity-building efforts in Iraq. And the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has raised and will continue to raise the issue with senior officials from the Government of Iraq, and has urged them to respond appropriately to all credible reports of violence against gay and lesbian Iraqis.

Video of the question and answer begins at the 20:50 mark.

Violence toward gays and lesbians in Iraq has been on the increase in recent months, many tortured or murdered by local militias or by their own relatives for shaming their families. Prominent religious leaders like radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr continue to condemned homosexuality in the harshest terms, inciting the violence.

The growing violence seems at odds with a statement made last April by John Fleming of the State Department: “In fact, it’s [homosexuality] immaterial to Iraqis … Frankly, there are other issues they’re concerned about like basic survival, getting food and water. It’s a luxury for the average Iraqi to worry about homosexuality.”

While homosexuality is not against the law in Iraq, it is forbidden by Islam.

Stephen Colbert who is broadcasting from Baghdad, Iraq this week broaches the controversial issue in front of a packed house of officers and soldiers. Watch:

It’s hard to read the applause and laughter of the audience. Was it because of Colbert “playing” gay or the absurdity of the policy? Or mixture of both? I did notice the lack of recognition in the audience when Lt. Dan Choi and Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, both victims of DADT were mentioned. Not even a smattering of applause. Hopefully they were simply unaware of the news back home.

It would have been interesting if they had done cutaways to the audience for their reactions during the segment… It would have been doubly interesting if Colbert had polled the audience about their position on DADT. But this is a comedy show… lest we forget.