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A link to this open letter by Dan Choi was Tweeted and an email copied to Brian Bond, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement (aka the LGBT liaison). Click to enlarge the documents Dan submitted:
Dear Mr. President:
Today I received a $2,500 bill from your Defense Department Finance and Debt Services. Specifically, you claim payment for “the unearned portion” of my Army contract. Six months after my discharge under the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy I have tried to move forward with my life, and I was inspired by your clarion calls for our progress as one nation towards a more just society. I have served my country in combat and I have tried to live my life by the values I learned at West Point in continued service to our nation. To move forward in my own life I have finally sought treatment for Combat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Military Sexual Trauma (MST), Insomnia, and Depressive Disorder from the Veterans Affairs Department. But I still find myself on a domestic battlefield for basic dignity as an American citizen. I know I am not alone in this fight because of the desperate cries for help I get from discharged, unemployed, discriminated, and suicidal veterans. I have felt all of their same pains personally. Today I also witness the disgrace of a country that perpetually discovers methods to punish its own citizens for taking a moral stand.
By flagrantly and repeatedly violating an immoral law, I have flagrantly and repeatedly saluted the honor of America’s promise. At West Point, when we recited the Cadet Prayer we reminded ourselves “always to choose the harder right over the easier wrong.” It would be easy to pay the $2500 bill and be swiftly done with this diseased chapter of my life, where I sinfully deceived and tolerated self-hatred under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Many thousands have wrestled with their responsibilities and expedient solutions when confronted with issues of this magnitude. I understand you also wrestle with issues of our equality. But I choose to cease wrestling, to cease the excuses, to cease the philosophical grandstanding and ethical gymnastics of political expediency in the face of moral duty. My obligations to take a stand, knowing all the continued consequences of my violations, are clear.
I refuse to pay your claim.
Respectfully,
Dan Choi
Former Army First Lieutenant
West Point Class of 2003Attached:
DFAS Account Statement 12/20/2010 (2 pages)
Also published to twitter @ltdanchoi
22 Comments
Please, Puh-leeeeeeze tell me this is a (very sick) joke…The military owes Dan $$$ and not the other way around. At all times he was willing to continue serving his country honorably and well. The only thing he refused to do was to LIE to serve his country. Enough is enough!
Pleasehow is this news worthy, oops its not.. just Dan seeking attention… and free money,,,
Hah! Good Ol’ ArmyA few months after I left I received a bill from the Army for 4k or so. ’Overpayment’ they called it. Now it’s been several years and I will finally get a tax return, yay!
Or perhaps to draw attentionto the hundreds of other DADT dischargees who are also fined, but aren’t in the media’s rolodexes?
What have you done for equality, beside bitch at other activists on the internet? I’m curious.
Good for Dan!The government should be paying him restitution for the emotional harm they inflicted on him, not sending him bills.
Sickntired of SickntiredJust out of curiousity, sickntired, is there any form of anti-gay discrimination that you oppose?
Sickntired of SickntiredJust out of curiousity, sickntired, is there any form of anti-gay discrimination that you oppose?
what i do is my businessHowever I don’t need the community acting like a bunch whining a*s kids which the community has been come,nor will i bow down the those very rich sorry as* fat cat, whom think this movement is all about them.
nor will i bow down to a demigod who think the world owes him something, like and the rest of the sorry a*s get equal group.
What you do is bitch. Endlessly. At people who are trying to move the ball down the field for everyone. I have yet to see evidence you ever do anything else.
rightmove ball in the anti-str8 anti-christian way. forcing business and others to comply to demands of LGBT community. sound like we have become the bullies now. you know it. the truth hurt.
Huh?I’m sorry but that’s a thoroughly incoherent comment.
This is disgusting!Equality, my A**!
No. It’s perfectly coherentIf it came out of Maggie Gallahager’s keyboard.
Now it all makes sense.
What no mention ….of his colonoscopy !?!
http://focusontherainbowopine….
This seems like a case of…Execute the prisoner, and send his estate a bill for the bullet.
You cannot unilaterally terminate a contract, then hold the other party liable for not completing that contract because they were fired. How can the military get away with this?
i feel so gayso when are you too going to tide the knot.. my gift to the your wedding with Maggie will be a French style wedding cake,
However, the LGBT Community here lately are acting like bullies and thugs. Thur Gay Inc. We are being the very thing we once fought against.
Since we have now got Chick-fil-a kick of a college campus just like the ROTC back in the day. i wonder if non-Christians could use the tactics to get all religion removed from all Colleges..
Yeah, Lets hear for the New Gay Inc Bullies of the 2011
The nature of a contract.
The contract contained provisions that each party was required to honor. So when Choi declared himself in open violation of military law, he gave cause for his own separation. It was hardly unilateral on the government’s part.
Now would seem to be a great time to take a look at all those balances due for gays and lesbians throughout the services – for salaries and compensation, for academy tuition, etc. – and wipe the slate clean. There ought to be a way to do it administratively, isn’t there?
And Dan Choi refusing to be bullied by the US Gov’t into paying $2,500 for the “privilege” of getting kicked out of the Army brought you to this tirade how?
I guess in your view he should just pay up like a good helpful homosexual victim. And the Gov’t will magically, someday, realize they are wrong and stop treating gays like second class citizens of their own accord.
You are correctThe military is on the right side of the law.
And in violation of Justice, Equality and Morality. When the laws are written by homophobes, we find ourselves in that position a lot.
That’s the basis of civil disobedience. Disobeying laws that are unjust.
he will payor the irs will take his refund.. so the gov’t will get their money.
And you’ll be cheering the injustice. Which puts you squarely in the outlier group. Sad.
That rightThe Country club members of Gay Inc don’t like when member of the LGBT community speaks the truth about the community do they… That we don’t even have equality within out community. That we will stab each other in the back just as fast as to look each other.
Sorry I’m won’t play by the secretive country club members rules…