Dan Choi: In the face of injustice, patience is not a plan and silence is not a strategy

[EFerrari]

“Love Is Worth It”: Iraq War Vet Facing Discharge for Violating “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Helps Lead Massive Rally for Gay Rights



President Obama has once again pledged to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which bars openly gay men and lesbians from serving in the military. But many queer activists are frustrated with Obama for neither following through on previous vows nor offering a new timetable. We speak with West Point graduate and Iraq war veteran Lieutenant Dan Choi, who’s facing discharge from the military for revealing he is gay. He was among tens of thousands that marched in Washington, DC on Sunday for gay rights.

Guest:

Lt. Dan Choi, a West Point graduate and Iraq war veteran. He is facing discharge under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for revealing in March that he is gay. He is the founder of Knights Out, a group of LGBT graduates of West Point.


http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/13/love_is_worth_it_iraq_war

http://knightsout.org/

[donco6]

1. "Don't speak up or you're a whiner!"

That seems to be the theme around here anyway.

[EFerrari]

4. You have to work pretty hard to watch and listen to Dan Choi

and not be on his side.

He's an attractive guy. I hope he does more of this. :)

[EFerrari]

2. "People don't realize some of the personal sacrifices that get us to where we are."

" . . . I’m originally from Orange County, California. My parents are immigrants from Korea. They’ve only been here about forty years. My dad is a Southern Baptist minister, and my mom is a nurse in the maternity ward at our local hospital. That means she loves babies. That means she would love more than anything that I have a dozen Korean grandbabies for her.

But, you know, when I came out of the closet to them just earlier on this year, a lot of people told me that I shouldn’t do that. A lot of people told me, “Why don’t you just—why don’t you just stay silent? Why don’t you just be quiet and lie about it?” Well, when I came back from Iraq, I finally understood what love was when I started a relationship, my very first one. And I didn’t want to lie about that anymore. I didn’t feel that if I respected my parents—and I respect and love them—that that kind of a relationship should be based on anything other than integrity and full disclosure. They should be a part of it.

So I told my mom. She said, “You know I love you, but gay doesn’t exist.” And my dad was, you know, also very skeptical. He didn’t understand it. So then I realized I had only told them and they’ve only known about twenty-eight seconds, while I’ve known about twenty-eight years. So I thought that it was going to take decades or maybe even multiple decades for them to understand, much less accept anything. But about three days ago—about four days ago, right as I was landing here in DC in preparation for this march, I had a phone call with my dad. And he said that he loves me and that he accepts me as his gay son. That’s something I never would have expected."

[Mari333]

3. knr

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.

~Bishop Desmond Tutu

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. +1

[struggle4progress]

5. Mr. Obama = 0.0000003% of the US population. So it sorta matters what some of the rest of us do.

Even if Mr. Obama were a million times more powerful than me or you, he'd still only count as 0.3% of the population

Kicking the ball past the Troglodytes and into the net is gonna take nice footwork and some careful team work. We gotta get the ball down the field, and one sloppy kick could cost us control. A bit of intelligent fakery can sometimes help, since it's nice to keep the other team busy trying to protect against the wrong threats