A Conversation with Dan Choi, Part 2: Agitation

If you’ve been following the news this week, you’ve heard that the U.S. military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy is now on the path to repeal. But yesterday, GetEQUAL cofounder Kip Williams was arrested for disturbing the peace after interrupting President Obama's speech at a political fundraiser event. Williams had interrupted the President to ask him to move faster on repealing DADT. The President seemed irked by the activist, as if he didn’t understand what else this malcontent expected him to do: “[M]aybe he didn't read the newspapers, because we are working with Congress as we speak to roll back Don't Ask, Don't Tell,” Obama said.

Why are DADT repeal activists still unhappy with President Obama if he is, in fact, moving forward to repeal DADT?

Because the proposed plan is a "compromise" that allows the military to continue discharging out gay, lesbian, and bisexual soldiers while the Pentagon conducts an expensive study to determine how to implement the repeal.

In fact, the repeal bill up for a vote in Congress—an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill—establishes no date for the end of the discriminatory policy, and the repeal is contingent upon a number of conditions being satisfied after the study is completed. GetEQUAL is currently circulating a video of Lt. Choi asking the important question, "When?" attached to a petition to the White House “to enact repeal this year and to issue an Executive Order to end military discharges immediately.” Choi writes in an open letter published today in Newsweek:

My question for the president that I ask in this video is simple: under your compromise, when will the discharges end? How long can we ask gay service members to live a lie? How long can we deny existence to their families? How long do we need to study the injustice in order to understand that discrimination is un-American?

In Part 1 of our interview on March 28, Lt. Choi spoke extensively about sacrifice. In Part 2 of the interview, he continues along that theme, and explains the necessity of agitation in social justice movements, as well as the importance of repealing DADT even if one opposes war and the military in general.

More from Lt. Choi after the jump.

A Conversation with Dan Choi, Part 1: Sacrifice

On March 28, 2010, I had the pleasure and honor of interviewing Lt. Dan Choi via telephone. Lt. Choi is a a fluent Arabic linguist, a West Point graduate, and an Iraq war veteran. He is also a vocal activist for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the 1993 U.S. law signed by then-President Clinton, which forces gay, lesbian, and bisexual service members to remain closeted or face discharge from the military. Promises have been made regarding the law's repeal, but given the current political climate, its status remains uncertain.

More than 13,500 service members have been discharged under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell since 1994, including almost 800 mission-critical troops in the last five years, according to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. Choi’s discharge is still pending after he came out publicly on The Rachel Maddow Show in 2009. He resumed military drills with his unit in early February of this year.

Choi was arrested on March 18 for handcuffing himself to the White House fence, along with Capt. Jim Pietrangelo, in protest of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. He was arrested there again on April 20, along with five other service members in uniform who also chained themselves to the fence. Lt. Choi refuses to be silenced, and continues to speak out against the injustice of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

In Part 1 of this interview, Choi emphasizes the importance and urgency of sacrifice in the struggle for LGBT equality, and the value that everyone has to contribute to the movement:


For a long time, we’ve been fighting and struggling to gain equality. Yes?

Well, for 40 years since Stonewall. People have been doing their part and paving the way.

Why do you think that sacrifice is so important in the struggle to gain full equality for LGBTQ Americans? Why are you calling for sacrifice now, when so many of us have had to make sacrifices just in order to make ends meet? As a military man, you are prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice if necessary. What would you say to someone who tells you that they can't afford to make any more sacrifices—or who hesitates to participate in civil disobedience, for fear of losing their job, their healthcare, their freedom, or even their life?

This issue, at its core, is about what America is, and when we talk about people who are losing their jobs, and when we talk about people who are going through difficult times, we have to remember that all people—who include the LGBT population—are significantly affected.

You bring up the economic situation. By the economic situation, we are significantly affected. And right now, as we don’t have the necessary protections for employment; and we don’t have, in the military, protections for expressing the truth; and we get fired for expressing the truth, even though we want to serve our country—we are all affected by that. Right now, because this is an issue about the core of what America stands for—the foundations of what America is—gay people, as well as straight people, are waking up to the necessity, and the urgency. I’m not creating this urgency. This urgency has existed.