Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: Daniel Choi’s Successful Battle

In a historic moment, Barack Obama abolished this past Wednesday the rule that disallowed American soldiers from revealing their sexual orientation.

The man in this photo is named Daniel Choi. He was born in 1981 and has served in the United States army, notably during the Iraq war as an Infantry Officer. A graduate of West Point, class of 2003, transferred to active service of the National Guard in New York in June of 2009, then to the National Guard of First Battalion of the 69th Infantry based in Manhattan, he was expelled from the U.S. Army for having breached the 1993 ruling called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which allowed homosexuals to serve in the army on the condition that they never reveal their sexual preferences. In March 2009, this decorated soldier made the mistake of coming out on the “Rachel Maddow Show,” and despite a petition signed by more than 150,000 people, his military career was stopped in its tracks by a panel of officers of the National Guard of New York, who respected the ruling down to the letter.

Daniel Choi, who left the army for good on June 29, 2010, has since become an activist of gay and lesbian rights. In an open letter addressed to the President of the United States, Barack Obama, and to the American Congress, he wrote in May 2009 that the policy “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” was a “slap in the face.” Not just to him, but also “to the face of 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.” Last March 18, Daniel Choi and another expelled officer, Captain Jim Pietrangelo, handcuffed themselves voluntarily to the entrance of the White House. They also held a seven-day hunger strike last May to convince Barack Obama to hold true to one of his campaign promises and speed up reform of this military code. Their fight has not been in vain.

A Symbol

Wednesday in Washington, four days after having obtained the green light from Congress, the President of the United States signed into law the abolition of the rule, despite much opposition within the Pentagon. New provisions will be established to allow homosexuals to serve in the American Army without having to hide their sexual orientation. According to Aaron Belkin, the director of the Palm Center, a think tank at the University of California at Santa Barbara, quoted by Reuters, the Pentagon is going to purposely slow down this reform. “The defense secretary and service chiefs have so far acted as if repeal is a complicated problem. They are probably going to demand up to a year to train troops how to interact with gays,” he claims. “This is a political obstruction by the service chiefs. Bottom line is that military could repeal this ban tomorrow if it wanted to, but that’s not going to happen,” he added.

Since 1993, more than 13,000 soldiers have been fired due to the law “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The American Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that these expulsions have cost almost 200 million dollars in recruitment and training. But according to the numbers made public by the Pentagon last February, the number of soldiers expelled from the army because of their homosexuality is in decline over the past few years: 428 soldiers were fired in 2009 — 259 men and 169 women — or a decline of 30 percent from the preceding year. Beyond the numbers and political calculations, however, a symbol was a stake. Daniel Choi can now finally cry tears of happiness: he has won the most important battle of his life.