Updated: 2 hours 1 minute ago
(July 23) -- One of the most prominent voices against the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, who came out on national TV last year and was arrested in March for handcuffing himself to the White House fence, has now been discharged from the Army because he is gay.
Lt. Dan Choi is a 2003 West Point graduate who is fluent in Arabic and served two tours in Iraq as an infantry platoon leader. Since returning from deployment, he's become one of the most vocal critics of the military's policy that bars anyone from serving in uniform if they are openly gay.
Choi, 29, revealed his sexual orientation publicly for the first time last year on MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show," prompting the Army to begin proceedings to discharge him. But his case had been in limbo since then, and Choi hoped to stay in the military long enough to see "DADT" repealed.
President Barack Obama is pushing the military to overturn the policy, and the Pentagon is conducting a review that's expected to last until the end of the year. A bill to abolish "don't ask, don't tell" is also being debated in Congress.
But the policy change hasn't come quick enough for Choi, who received a phone call from his New York Army National Guard commander on Thursday, informing him that he has been honorably discharged from the military. (See official discharge document here.)
"He was very supportive and said, 'I know this was something you didn't want to hear,'" Choi said, recounting the phone call in a Newsweek interview. Choi said his commander told him that "change was in the air," referring to how the military's policies are under review.
But Choi told the Orange County Register, his hometown California newspaper, that he found the Army's decision "infuriating and painful."
"It's very painful news to know you're getting fired just for who you are," Choi said. "'Of course we expected it. You don't go into battle like this, you don't start a journey like this, without fully knowing what lays ahead."
He said the military would allow him to stay in service only if he denied his previous statements about being gay.
"All you can do is say, 'That's not me,' or that I was lying, or say that I said that at the time, but I apologize and I'm not gay," Choi told the Register. "The first thing I said was, 'I'm gay, and I have a boyfriend, not a girlfriend.' You don't get into trouble for lying, only for telling the truth."
Choi had been training monthly with his National Guard unit since February, preparing for a possible deployment to Afghanistan.
In March, he was arrested along with another Army captain, for handcuffing themselves to the White House fence while in uniform, to protest the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. They claimed to be following an order from Obama to challenge what he has called an outdated and unfair policy, and asked the president publicly to testify at a hearing on their behalf. Obama didn't get involved, but the civil disobedience charges against Choi and the other soldier were later dropped.
Choi grew up in California but now lives in New York City, where he founded KnightsOut.org, a group of West Point graduates who support the rights of gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual soldiers to serve openly in the U.S. military. The group estimates that there are 65,000 gays still closeted in the military.
News of Choi's discharge comes as a federal judge in California is scheduled to hear closing arguments today in a case brought by the pro-gay Log Cabin Republicans challenging the constitutionality of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, according to The Washington Post.
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