Lt. Dan Choi Back on Active Duty

[kpete]

Source: Advocate

Dan Choi Back on Active Duty
By Michelle Garcia
DAN CHOI X390 (BILERICO) | ADVOCATE.COM




Gay military rights advocate Lt. Dan Choi has been reportedly called back into active duty. Photographer Jeff Sheng, who recently turned his lens on active gay and lesbian service members, confirmed the news in a blog posting on Bilerico.com.
BilericoProject+%28The+Bilerico+Project%29" target="_blank">http://www.bilerico.com/2010/02/lt_dan_choi_back_at_tra...

Choi was to appear at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Creating Change conference but could not attend due to his being called to serve.

Sheng wrote on Bilerico.com that despite Choi facing an Army committee recommending he be discharged under "don't ask, don't tell," his commanding officer was highly supportive of the Arabic translator and West Point graduate.

Read more: http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/02/09/Dan_... /

[myrna minx]

1. K&R n.t

[CatWoman]

2. this is WONDERFUL news!!

[Mithreal]

39. +1

[babylonsister]

3. Yay! Recommend!!! nt

[Skinner]

4. Whoa!

I thought they'd wait for the actual repeal of DADT before bringing people back. This is great news!

[sarge43]

17. Wonderful news

However, if he was discharged, not released from AD, but discharged for cause which he would have been under DADT, then the Army has no hooks in him. He had to volunteer to return.

Sounds like the same thing that happened with a friend's daughter about three years ago. She was discharged under DADT, but about a year later she received a letter from the Army saying in effect (shuffle, shuffle) you can come back in; all's forgiven (shuffle, shuffle). I believe she had a critical MOS. She gave 'em the middle finger salute.

I wish him all the best.

[dencol]

20. I'd do the same thing as your friend's daughter!

Why would I go back to an organization that attempted to humiliate me, and destroy my career? I'm not criticizing anybody's actions, and understand why people would go back, but frankly, they deserve a better place to work.

[sarge43]

21. Great minds, dencol

I advised the same thing. I told friend as long as DADT is on the books gays and lesbians in service are vulnerable.

[bullwinkle428]

5. If this action made just one Freeper's head explode...it was worth it!!

How's that virtual wedgie feel, John McCain?



GRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!! ATOMIC!!

[Cha]

6. Well well well! How about that!

Good for this happening!

[90-percent]

7. Great News

Dan Chou is a great person first and an excellent soldier second.

-90% Jimmy

[EFerrari]

8. WOW! Good job, Dan Choi!

If you haven't seen or heard Dan speak, go to Amy's site and search his name. He's one great speaker. I hope when he's out he runs for office.

[WhiteTara]

9. good news for the country

and a personal victory for Daniel (not the active duty part, but the clearing of his good name.)

[alsame]

10. Excellent news! nt

[Starry Messenger]

11. OK!

That's more like it!

[onehandle]

12. Fantastic! nt

[Eyerish]

13. Excellent news! K&R

I hope there is more to come...

[Dappleganger]

14. Change in the right direction...

now let them ALL come back with restitution!

[No Elephants]

58. My thought, exactly.

[GodlessBiker]

15. So, the military is bound to follow the current law unless it doesn't want to?

Why doesn't the administration do the same with all LGBT soldiers?

They are consciously removing from the media a wonderful advocate for the elimination of DADT.

[sarge43]

19. I don't believe DADT is law; it's policy.

Policy can be wink-wink, nudged, nudged.

If any LGBTs were discharged merely for orientation, then yes, no reason they can't be returned to AD if they choose to. The DADT coding on their 214s certainly should be changed.

However, if they were discharged under Article 125, UCMJ that's a different matter. UCMJ is law and can't be hand waved. It's probably going to take a Supreme ruling to get that medieval foolishness modified and the current gang certainly isn't going to consider it let alone deal with it.

[GodlessBiker]

24. No, it's law. That's why Cngress gets a say in it. Clinton signed DADT into law.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/10/654.html

It used to be just policy, but DADT turned it into law.

[sarge43]

31. Thanks for the info.

Then, that makes Lt Choi very vulnerable. I would not put it past some current homophobic general to go "oooops, that (unprintable) shouldn't have allowed back it." and try to boot him out again.

All this has happened before. Before the Nam War ginned up GLBTs and anyone believed to be were persecuted in wholesale lots, during Nam very little, after the dust settled, right back at it.

Plus, if it is law, then President Obama or Secretary Gates can not make it go away by themselves. That is up to Congress.

[No Elephants]

54. No, not that eitther.

It is only custom that, once Congress speaks on a military subject, the CIC does not. It is not law, only custom. Nothing in the law gives Congress the power to strip the Chief Executive of the power the Constitution gives him as Commander in Chief. No law says that; the Constitution does not say that and the SCOTUS has never said it. It is so only if and to the extent the Executive voluntarily chooses to defer to Congress.

In addition, Congress has also enacted 10 U.S.C. 12305, which says that the President may suspend discharges in an emergency. This law, also known as "stop loss," has been used over and over and over in the "war on terra." The President can simply say that DADT discharges are suspended until further notice. Then, it would not much matter how long Congress took to repeal DADT. And I very much doubt that, once integration went into effect, any future President would dare reverse it, much as no President dared reverse Truman's executive order racially integrating the military.

Obama could have exercised his power under the Constitution and/or under 10 USC 12305 by signing an order on Inauguration Day. That would have spared hundreds of gays, including a number of other Arabic translators, an abrupt end to the careers to which they felt duty had called them. (The number between Obama's inauguration and January 28, 2010 alone was estimated at 644; the number from enactment of DADT in 1993 until that date, 13,000.) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/opinion/29fri1.html

IMO, allowing one openly gay member of the military to keep his job despite all the other discharges is a wholly arbitrary act of which government should not be guilty. If that happens, all those discharged who wish to rejoin should be allowed to do so.

[kenfrequed]

41. Fortunately...

The Supremes do not have that kind of authority and this is outside their sphere unless someone brings a case to them challenging this. There is NO NEED to do so.

[No Elephants]

56. The Supremes have the authority to interpret the Constitution, be it which

powers the President has, as CIC, or whether DADT violates the equal protection clause.

But, yes, of course, someone has to bring a case to them first. That's why the Republican yell, now unfortunately also picked up by Democrats, about legislating from the bench is so lame.

Personally, I would not trust this accursed Court to referee a hopscotch game impartially, especially in neo theo matters, but maybe that's just me.

[kenfrequed]

66. There is no need.

Again. There is no need for the supremes to be in this mess.

[Sans Culottes]

16. K&R n/t

[harlinchi3]

18. Congrats, El Tee!

Your sense of duty and honor always impressed me. Well done, sir!

- a former buck sgt

[Kolesar]

22. Bak Choi?

I read the subject line fast

[No Elephants]

57. LOL. I believe your question should read "Back, Choi?"

[burrowowl]

23. Great News!

Here is hoping others are being reinstated!

[Lebam in LA]

25. Dan Choi Returned To Active Duty

Source: Huffington Post

In a sign that momentum behind a repeal of the military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy is having an impact, openly gay U.S. Army National Guard Lieutenant Dan Choi has been recalled to active duty.



Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/09/dadt-repeal-ac...

---

It's about time!

[ck4829]

26. "We're at war" say conservatives, in regards to using torture

But yet we take an Arabic translator off of active duty, why?

[gateley]

27. I actually got chills reading this headline. I'm so happy for him,

and for what this portends for our armed services. Thanks for posting!

[The Wizard]

28. A critical MOS

supersedes fear and superstition.

[sarge43]

32. Until the war goes away, Wizard. n/t

[Ellipsis]

29. Coolness!

[pinto]

30. Yeah. Good news, good move and it sends a good "message".

[Toasterlad]

33. Excellent. Now Do the Same For All Servicemembers Who've Been Wrongfully Booted Due To This Immoral

shit.

[RushIsRot]

34. May this trend continue indefinitely, or forever, whichever comes first.

[Betsy Ross]

35. Great news! k&r n/t

[proteus_lives]

36. Great news!

[glinda]

37. he should be careful if you ask me

[Lugnut]

38. Finally, common sense prevails.

[graywarrior]

40. OMG, that makes me sooooooo happy!!!!!!

[ooglymoogly]

42. Excellent, there is something to be said for the squeaky wheal approach.

Now lets get the rest of them back and then bring everybody home, these wars are no good for nobody.

[euphoria12leo]

43. Excellent news

I am so glad this happened. I was wondering if those that have been discharged would be able to serve in the military again. There
are so many soldiers that have been discharged under DADT. I hope they get the same opportunity to serve again.

[handmade34]

44. awesome!

[tbyg52]

45. This makes me very happy.

[lib_wit_it]

46. Wonderful news! So happy for him and encouraged that change may be on the way.

[MadMaddie]

47. Food for thought

How many other valuable gay military men and women have they called back? How many of those men and women are as visible and outspoken as Lt. Choi?

I am guessing 0. So how do you quite the noise from a charismatic, outspoken gay soldier who is getting more and more attention by the media?

That's right you reinstate him and he can no longer be the vocal opponant of DADT.

I am glad he is back in the job but I believe there are more motives behind this reinstatement.

[1776Forever]

48. Best news I have heard for a long time! Congrats to Lt. Choi!

[Lucky Luciano]

49. Common sense prevails! nt

[David Zephyr]

50. Wow! Great news! Wonderful news! They didn't ask, but he told. And he's back.

Great news.

[donheld]

51. One of the biggest K & R ever

this is fabulous news.

[nevergiveup]

52. Yes! Yes! Yes! Great News!!!!!!

[madmax]

53. Alrighty!! It's the right thing to do. n/t

[tomm2thumbs]

55. he must be on cloud 9!!

good for him and the powers that made it happen - hopefully it is a sign others will have some reasonable thought put towards their proceedings as well.

[No Elephants]

59. K & R.. DADT = a national disgrace--that's at least 2 national disgraces for which we can "thank"

the well-named Colin Powell.

[Nancy_Thompson]

60. This is great news.

NT

[Hekate]

61. This is great news, kpete. KnR.

[Divine Discontent]

62. WONDERFULLY uplifting news. K&R for Dan & all of us who spread word of his plight

[JTFrog]

63. Now this is fantastic news!

[LibertyLover]

64. This is wonderful news

good to hear.

[fascisthunter]

65. great News!!!

now let's bring them ALL home.

[Chicago dyke]

67. i adore Dan!

he's scheduled to be Grand Marshal at the NYC pride parade. i hope he can still make it.