UPDATE: Military Board Recommends Dismissal of Lt. Dan Choi
July 1, 2009
On Tuesday, a military administrative board recommended that Lt. Dan Choi – Iraq war veteran, Arabic linguist, and member of the LGBT service member’s organization Knights Out – be discharged from the National Guard under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. The panel of military administrators heard Choi’s testimony and, after four hours of deliberation, submitted their recommendation.
Lt. Choi became one of the leading advocates for the repeal of DADT after coming out in March in the Army Times newspaper and on The Rachel Maddow Show.
In a statement to MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, Lt. Choi responded to the decision saying, “I’m disappointed but I need to send a message to my soldiers that if you get knocked down, get yourself back up and keep fighting. What kind of officer or leader would I be if I gave up?”
Lt. Choi’s case now goes to the First Army commander and the chief of the National Guard Bureau for review. If discharged, Lt. Choi will become the 266th service member to be dismissed under DADT since President Obama took office in January 2009.
News of Lt. Choi’s dismissal comes after a slew of media coverage of DADT in the past week:
Defense Secretary Robert Gates issued a statement indicating that he wants to make the implementation of DADT “more humane” until Congress can address its possible repeal. Secretary Gates stated he has lawyers studying ways the law might be “selectively enforced.”
The White House also issued this response to a question regarding the timetable for the repeal of the policy:
Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach appeared on Tuesday’s CNN Newsroom to discuss his own pending dismissal. The 19-year veteran spoke with President Obama at this week’s White House reception celebrating the 40th anniversary of Stonewall. Although the Lt. Col. was hopeful for President Obama’s movement on DADT, he did not appear as hopeful for his own pending case:
“I think that I may end up being discharged at the end of the day, but if the law’s repealed, then that’s—that’s for the greater good. I hope that, if it is repealed, then maybe I can come right back in the military and finish out my career.”
On Monday’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, Chuck Todd interviewed openly gay Rep. Jared Polis of Colo. During the interview, Rep. Polis voiced his support for the repeal of DADT saying:
“Really, the only area where I have seen any disagreement over this is under the Capital dome. I think we need to make a lot of progress on that. The American people and the military are more than ready.”
Keith Olbermann brought on writer and LGBT advocate Dan Savage on Countdown to discuss President Obama’s addressing of DADT during the White House reception in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
Savage brought up the interesting comparison between Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s suspension of the “widower’s penalty” – a policy which requires the deportation of non-citizen widowers of U.S. citizens – to the reluctance of the Obama administration to halt DADT dismissals. Savage sarcastically joked, “[Napolitano] seems to have authorities and powers that the President, her boss, Commander-in-Chief does not.”
We’ll keep you updated as Lt. Choi’s case progresses.
Related Posts:Keith Olbermann at the 20th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in NYC
April 2, 2009
Watch Keith Olbermann accept the award for Outstanding TV Journalism Segment at the 20th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York City. The clip starts with Jane Velez-Mitchell and Hannah Storm introducing all the nominated clips and then announcing Keith Olbermann as the winner.
You can watch Suze, Tyra, Clay and T.R. Knight’s speeches here.
Don’t forget to buy your tickets for the Los Angeles GLAAD Media Awards today!!
Countdown with Keith Olbermann – World’s Worst: Pat Boone
December 9, 2008
Keith Olbermann responds to singer Pat Boone’s WorldNetDaily column that compares Prop. 8 protests to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Olbermann: “They’re in fact so far apart that it’s like comparing Pat Boone the singer to Pat Boone the thinker.”
Jeffrey Feldman has more over at Frameshop.
Changing Tactics, Changing Times
August 7, 2008
AfterElton tapped pundits, journalists politicians, bloggers and GLAAD for our take on how gay issues may be used in the media during election 2008 and whether tactics from the past would resonate in the cultural climate of today. Canvassing the opinions of MSNBC commentators Keith Olberman and Joe Scarborough, Hardball Host Chris Matthews and CNN correspondents Suzanne Malveaux and John King, AfterEltoncontributing writer Christie Keith heard the overwhelming opinion that using gay issues as a wedge was a no go strategy in our modern and somewhat more enlightened era.
CNN’s Malveaux said, “It’s not just the times that have changed, but that people’s concerns are different in 2008 than in previous years. The cultural issues that resonated in previous elections aren’t necessarily being emphasized this time around. It’s more pocketbook issues, it’s more gas prices, it’s more the homeowners’ crisis, the mortgage crisis.”
AmericaBlog’s John Aravosis also weighed in. “Society has changed since 2000. We’ve gone from Will & Grace being historic to Will & Grace being reruns. I’m serious. This is eight years later. You can’t do the same anti-gay stuff you did eight years ago. You just can’t. So it’s got to be a finer dance.”
Even Karl Rove, known as the architect of exploiting gay issues in the 2004 presidential re-election of George W. Bush, lent his voice to this story but would not acknowledge the role he played in that exploitation.
“I think it entered into force in the 2004 race simply because it was not introduced by the political actors themselves. Neither the Bush nor the Kerry campaigns brought the issue forward. It was brought forward by a Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts. It sort of exploded on the scene and got a life of its own.”
Openly gay powerhouse politician, Massachusetts’s Congressman, Barney Frank (D-Mass) had an interesting take on what Rove left out of his remarks.
“I think what he’s telling you now reflects the fact that he and the President and their political people tried very hard to whip up anti-gay marriage sentiment in 2005 and 2006 by forcing several votes on the Constitutional amendment, and it blew up in their face. What Rove is telling you is probably true now, but he forgot to add that he’s very disappointed because he tried very hard to exploit it for the 2006 election and it had no impact…. We passed an anti-discrimination bill by a large majority. We passed the hate crimes bill…. I think the air is substantially out of this balloon.”
I chimed in to explain that while we aren’t seeing an overwhelming amount of overt anti-gay overtones in the media discourse what we are seeing is an attempt to use coded language (like so-called “family values”) to target anti-gay voters – just as Senator McCain tried to do in an interview with George Stephanopoulos. Throughout this election season GLAAD will keep a close eye on these kinds of attempts and urge journalists to push past the rhetoric and buzz phrases to get at the heart of the matter and show Americans what’s really behind the words.
Cindi Creager is Director of National News.
