Obama, activists lose momentum over 'don't ask'

[boston bean]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Dan Choi, a gay National Guard platoon leader, will be discharged from the military under the Obama administration, which has quietly shelved the president's campaign promise to repeal the 16-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" policy with the tacit acquiescence of Washington's gay lobbying establishment.

Choi is among 38 West Point graduates who came out of the closet in March with an offer to help the military recognize the contributions of gay military members..........

Choi, a 2003 West Point graduate and fluent speaker of Arabic who served an extended combat deployment in Iraq, received his notice Wednesday.

The letter told him that because of his public expression of his homosexuality, "I have negatively affected good order and discipline in the New York Army National Guard, the entire New York National Guard," Choi said. "That's what the letter says. I didn't feel that. The person that wrote the letter doesn't know me. I don't know him. He's never been in my unit. He doesn't know any of the soldiers in my unit."



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/08/MN9L17GJM3.DTL