Today's Out Spotlight is on Lt. Dan Choi and the organization Knight's Out. Choi, West Point graduate and gay Arabic-speaking linguist was discharged from the Army National Guard under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy after coming out earlier in the spring on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow's show.Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
He received a letter informing him of his dismissal, which read in part: "You admittedly publicly that you are a homosexual, which constitutes homosexual conduct … Your actions negatively affected the good order and discipline of the New York Army National Guard."
In a letter to the president, Lt. Dan Choi said the discharge letter, dated April 23, 2009, was "a slap in the face to me. It is a slap in the face to my soldiers, peers and leaders who have demonstrated that an infantry unit can be professional enough to accept diversity, to accept capable leaders, to accept skilled soldiers."My subordinates know I'm gay. They don't care," he said. "They are professional.
"As an infantry officer, I am not accustomed to begging. But I beg you today: Do not fire me,"
It took him only 30 minutes after receiving the letter to decide: "I'm fighting this."
There have been over 12,500 service men and women who have been dismissed because of the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy of the US Armed Forces. There are currently 65,000 men and women in the military serving in silence.
Choi is a co-founder of the group Knight's Out. Knight's Out is is an organization of OUT Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) West Point Alumni, along with our Straight West Point Alumni, Staff, and Faculty counterparts, who are united in supporting the rights of LGBT soldiers to openly serve their country. Right now Knights out has 115 members, 68 OUT Knights, and 308 straight allies.
Their OUT members include former West Point professors, Rhodes Scholars, decorated combat veterans from the Vietnam War, Iraq and Afghanistan, peacekeepers who served in Haiti and Bosnia, men and women from the first co-ed class (1980), an ordained minister, and many others, coming out from their silence to serve their country in a new way.Their OUT members represent over 340 years of Active Duty military service to our country.
Members have served in all combat branches: Infantry, Armor, and Field Artillery, as well as Air Defense Artillery, Aviation, Corps of Engineers, Transportation Corps, Military Intelligence, Medical Service Corps, Military Police, Ordnance, Public Affairs, Adjutant General's Corps, and Quartermasters Corps Their members have achieved the ranks of 1LT, CPT, MAJ, LTC, COL, and Brigadier General. They represent Alumni from the Class of 1947 to Class of 2005.Their ranks include men and women, at an almost 1 to 1 ratio.
The mission of Knights Out is threefold: To advocate for the rights of LGBT soldiers to openly serve their country. To prepare West Point graduates and cadets to lead in a military where LGBT soldiers are allowed to serve openly. To be role models and leaders for LGBT soldiers living under Don't Ask, Don't Tell, by speaking out when they must be silent.
Knights Out as the first West Point Alumni Contingent to marches in the San Francisco Gay Pride parade on June 28th. Knights Out co-founder 1LT Dan Choi will be a celebrity Grand Marshall.
Knights Out.org
What a waste of talent. Dont ask dont tell MUST end. I am certainly glad Knights Out has been created and their mission is honorable. Daniel Choi is a role model. I am totally dumbfounded that Dont ask dont tell still exists. President Obama must exhibit leadership and have the leaders of the military branches understand he is their boss and not the other way around.
ReplyDeleteI am so furious at Obama; he has the power to suspend DADT and keep people like Lt. Choi from losing their jobs in the military until Congress can get the law repealed.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't even get me started on DOMA. Has anyone else been following the stories about the brief the government filed Friday against a lawsuit brought in California against DOMA and Prop.? For anyone who is interested, check out the multiple stories about it on americablog.com.
I read about it Destiny. It is a disgrace and everyone should be aware of what Obama is doing. I just cant believe it.
ReplyDeleteI know Obama said he wasn't in favor of gay marriage, but he did promise to repeal DOMA and DADT. And if he's really going to be working to repeal them, then he shouldn't doing what he has been doing.
ReplyDeleteOh my the new BIG PAPPI sure can hit:-). Come on Phils!!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the well wishes, everyone. Tink is doing well and has stitches. She will have a three inch scar from this.
ReplyDeletePG, so sorry about your computer. Technology is great when it works.
The past three Saturdays I haven't gone online at all. Just happened. I kind of like having an internet-free day.
Re today's Out Spotlight- this has got to be the stupidest military discharge ever. The US military doesn't have Arab linguists to spare. Keep fighting, Lt. Choi!
No one was more Gay friendly than the former Mayor of Philadelphia and now Gov of Pennsylvania Ed Rendell. I actually had the pleasure of saying hello to and shaking the hand of the former mayor at the Pride Day Parade in Phila. many years ago. He was always there.
ReplyDeleteBratton used to be the Police Commissioner in Boston and was supportive of the LGTB community when he served here as well.
ReplyDeleteInteresting and fun series Spesh. Wouldnt it be fun to do again in October.
ReplyDeleteI got a feeling Daniel Choi is gonna make a difference. I for one am very proud of him.
Danny Choi is certainly a cutie.
ReplyDeleteSmall world: Howard Bragman (one of your Spotlights) and his husband are friends with Bratton, the money Bratton donated to LGBT/No on 8 was Bragman/spouse's wedding gift from Bratton and his wife.
ReplyDeleteas always, a great OUT post. thank you for keeping us aware of people outside of the spotlight. their struggles and successes are so important.
ReplyDeleteobama has so much on his plate right now. that's not an excuse, since DADT was recently on his agenda. i just hope that as other things start to settle down that he will revisit some of his other promises.
hugs all around. s!
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeletePosted on WDW
Maggie Gyllenhaal is in Paris to publicise Sherry Baby, which, rather surprisingly (and rather slowly - even for a Gyllenhaal film), had its French premiere this week. And yes! You've guessed it - hot on the tweets of Jake being in London, twitters are now tweeting that Jake has followed Maggie to Paris and he too is now in the city of lights!
Paris twitter
No way Reese was at that wedding and you can bet Austin was. Austin either stayed in London after the wedding or went back to be photographed there because there are most likely photos of Austin being there at the wedding time.
ReplyDeleteTalk about fear of being outed. Also Austin for the side of safety found his Italin birds to be photographed with. No way to know for sure but very possible.
Where are your pics PG. I havent seen the beard in the courtyard yet. Just the back of a blonde head. Jake maybe is kissing up to Maggie a bit because he is sorry he used her in his little lie. I think Maggie is the most stable Gyllenhaal and worries about her little brother.
^sorry not London but Italy.
ReplyDeleteThere have been only 3 Tweets about Jake in Paris, 1 Sat and 2 today, and they were saw Jake in Paris that's it. - and that stuff from WFT2 is from what Kate wrote on WDW.
ReplyDeleteThere were also tweets about him being in California, New York, eating blackberries, someone wrecking his Ducati roadster into a Apple store and a sighting of somebody who didn't even look like him in Belgium over this weekend.
Just don't know where Jake is and it looks like that's the way he wants it this weekend off the clock.
Right, Special. Whatever they're doing, they're flying under the radar. And that's fine. I hope they're having alot of fun, whatever it is. sigh. I wish we could maybe see sometimes when they're actually having fun doing something, lol.
ReplyDeleteThis is outrageous, this no ask, no tell ( I typed no kiss, no tell at first. Where is my mind at after that last paragraph). It is just crazy in this day & age. It's a disgrace, really.
Well, no deals really in the paper's ads today. I am tempted to go with Dell again because they make it sooooo easy for computer challenged people such as myself. Although they sure have made me mad a few times.
This rest of this month is going to be a real blur. I have dogsitting tomorrow night & Tuesday (Molly, Lucy & Jingles). Then next weekend (Chloe & the Major). Then for 5 days that following next weekend (Puddy & Nikki). Then over July 4th weekend (Molly, Luce & Jingles again). I had Lubby & Barks mom call me for this coming weekend, but I was already booked. Then, we're anticipating the kids coming up for a few days sometime soon since they finish their tennis lessons this week. Father's Day is coming up as well. And we have people on vacation at work all month, so I'm going to be all rattled & stressed, probably.
Got all the 4th of July decorations up this weekend and won't even hardly be around to enjoy them. You've never seen so much red, white & blue in your life!
I need to get Big Eden on my netflix queu (sp?) in a minute. I was unable to get it on there when I sent back Monsoon Wedding so now I have Love American Style, disc 2 coming. Oh shoot. I just remembered, tho. I don't get internet access at Puddy & Nikki's house. grrrr!
Well, I need to sign off. Back to downloading pics again, lol. Good to see everyone!
Hi, Prairie Girl. I hope you watched Monsoon Wedding. I loved that film.
ReplyDeleteI'm back home and very happy to be here. I don't need to see another plane for a long time.
Jake world seems pretty slow these days. Good for me so I have time to get back up to speed. This was the longest single period I've been away from a computer in years.
Seems like the military is being pretty stupid these days. Serving time is an acceptable alternative to jail, but an intelligent, useful gay is not fit to serve. Makes no sense. Obama does have a lot on his plate, but I hope he gets to this soon.
"There have been only 3 Tweets about Jake in Paris, 1 Sat and 2 today, and they were saw Jake in Paris that's it. - and that stuff from WFT2 is from what Kate wrote on WDW.
ReplyDeleteThere were also tweets about him being in California, New York, eating blackberries, someone wrecking his Ducati roadster into a Apple store and a sighting of somebody who didn't even look like him in Belgium over this weekend."
Uh, you gotta read and study the tweets and click the links. Also look at the OP's prior entries. And sightings, you gotta get more than one to corroborate it especially in a crowd situation.
The 2 Paris entries had links to ebay for Paris jeans, so it was a spam. The one sighting for Bonarroo was the only one, doubtful in a crowd Jake would only be recognized and sighted and tweeted once so it was a joke or a bad ID. I read the Ducati one, it was most def a tongue in cheek joke. Most tweets are false not because people are trying to lead people on but because they have given their friends the nickname "Jake Gyllenhaal" for various reasons or as a joke to say someone looks like him, or not.
The Paris sighting might be credible if only because Maggie is there for her Sherry movie premiere and Jake easily blends in there so he goes unnoticed by most Parisians..the tweeter is an American, who would likely notice him. There was another sighting yesterday of Jake in Sherman Oaks Ca (its near Burbank), which could also be credible because of Burbank airport, which is way more anonymous than LAX for celebs to use when traveling. But both sightings are one-only and no pics, so no real deductions can be made right now. Time will have to tell.
Also saw the Dustin Lance Black sex photos. Sorry, this slash fan had to look. I think he is handling the whole thing very well. I must say he looks sexy in the photos.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't going into the whole thing of the tweets and yes I followed all the links but didn't think it was that big of a deal that really put him anywhere.
ReplyDeleteAnd still never saw anything about Bonaroo but one mention from anonymous on WFT2.
So like I said before it sounds like no one where he really is and I think he likes it that way.
After Jake was out of the country last year for the Lakers in the NBA finals, would he want to be away again? Especially since they will probably take it all tonight.
They did!
ReplyDeleteI had to look too M. Agree about how he's handling it. I have to say there is something strange about looking at photos of someone like that (and this coming from someone who saw the whole Pamela and Tommy tape). I guess I worry a bit more that with someone gay it will be taken differently than with someone who is straight.
ReplyDeleteWell, at least Lance was totally out, but the photos were very personal. I have not watched any of the others. Tommy Lee, Rob Lowe, Paris Hilton or whoever. I was kind of surprised that Perez posted them, but then equality means equal, both the good and the bad.
ReplyDeleteI don't trust any of the twitters. Jake's been seen all over the place lately. Unless he learned the secret of time travel when making DD, he cant be in that many places in the time allotted. Hopefully, he and Austin are having some private time.
Yeah all those NYC and SoHo twitters were PR plants.
ReplyDelete^^^ It's obvious that ALL twitters CAN'T be true, ergo some are definitely FAKE.
ReplyDeleteYou can't deny that, can you?
TN/Bonarro sighting:
ReplyDeletekathysabretooth: Spotted: jake gyllenhall, drew barrymore and justin long at bon iver
1 day ago from TwitterBerry
Mistaken identity IMO.
Good morning! Well, it's thunderstorming this morning. Lovely!
ReplyDeleteAlways kind of thankful to dogsit as it not only lets me hug & kiss on alot of dogs, but I also get things done, lol! Catching up the checkbook, filling out forms & whatnot that I won't do on my own time. Although, usually these people have alot better cable, so it's easy to get distracted. And so with Mol, Luce & Jingles, HBO & Showtime come along with the package, so, well. I've been warned already that Jingles just does his poop business in the house no matter what. Joy!! I hope she has plenty of baggies on hand.
I can't figure out that Drew Barrymore. Here she is back with that Justin Long guy again. She is starting to remind me of Kate Hudson. They're photo'd at that Bonnaroo on People.com, which listed a bunch of stars who were at that festival, but JG wasn't one of them. They pick on Jennifer A about not being able to find a good guy, but Drew kind of goes through 'em, too.
It was funny what Jennifer said when she accepted that Women's Crystal award. I like someone who can poke & have fun at themselves and she always seems able to do that. I wish the rags would stop picking on her for her unlucky man streak. It's not like she's seen with every Tom, Dick & Harry every time you see her on the sites or in the mags. I really like her & I hope she finds someone that she falls head over heels with & returns those feelings.
Monday June 15, 2009
ReplyDeleteThey've been working on separate projects, but newlyweds Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Skarsgaard have been enjoying time together in Paris – and even made time for their extended family. While Gyllenhaal rushed off for interviews about her 2006 film SherryBaby, she entrusted daughter Ramona to mom Naomi, who babysat. Meanwhile, Skarsgaard spent the afternoon lunching with his brother-in-law, Jake.
If Jake is Paris with Maggie Mom and Peter, don't think he is there on just his own with them, it was a good time to be together with Cantara "revelations" going public.
ReplyDelete