This isn't surprising, but it's still sad.
Most people who’ve been following the civil-disobedience efforts of Lt. Dan Choi may have thought he was already discharged by the Army under "don’t ask, don’t tell"—the military’s 17-year-old ban on gays and lesbians serving openly. After all, he had come out as gay on The Rachel Maddow Show more than a year ago, and his discharge process began shortly after. But Choi had always been in bureaucratic limbo and had yet to receive any official, conclusive word that his days in the military were over.
Earlier this morning he got the call. It was from his commander at the 1/69 Infantry Regiment of the New York Army National Guard, and it was bad news. Choi had also just learned from another source that a letter had been received some time ago, with confirmed receipt by his father in Orange County, Calif., officially declaring him kicked out of the Army. "But my dad and I are not on speaking terms," says Choi, who had not been informed of the letter by his family.
Let's just dump the stupid rule and get on with our lives. While we're at it, let's dump DOMA too.
1 comment:
No Kidding! Few enough people are willing and able to do the jobs we need them to do in the military that we can't afford to tell 10% of the population that they can't serve just because 20% of the population are religious fanatics.
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