Gay Veteran Discusses 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' Fort Hood Massacre During UCSF Visit
Dan Choi
The day after the deadly massacre at Fort Hood raised pointed questions about the stress and psychological strain of military service, Lt. Dan Choi, a gay Iraq War veteran, came to UCSF to discuss the physical and mental toll of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
Choi, a Korean-American West Point graduate and fluent Arabic speaker, came out as gay last March on MSNBC TV’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” and was notified a month later that the Army had begun discharge proceedings against him.
He has since traveled the country to advocate repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT), which prohibits any homosexual or bisexual person from disclosing his or her sexual orientation or speaking about any homosexual relationships while serving in the armed forces. In October, President Barack Obama reaffirmed his campaign pledge to end the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military, but he offered no timetable or specifics for fulfilling that pledge.
In a visit to the UCSF Parnassus campus on Nov. 6, Choi compared DADT to the pressure felt by Iraq’s Shia Muslims, who were persecuted for decades, particularly under Saddam Hussein’s rule.
“The Shia were told to hide who they were,” Choi said. “So many of us in the LGBT community are told that same Shia philosophy, that we should hide, we should wait to speak out.”
The strain of keeping part of one’s identity hidden can be overwhelming, Choi acknowledged, saying that since coming out publicly, he has received emails from other gay soldiers telling him, “I don’t know if I can continue on with this.”
UCSF professor of psychiatry Rob Daroff, MD, said he and his colleagues at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center have spoken to veterans who are “suicidal over fears that they would be outed and abused.”
“The [DADT] policy makes it nearly impossible for them to defend themselves, because if they speak up, they could be discharged,” Daroff said.
Stress Takes its Toll
“It’s so important that we deal with [issues] such as non-stop deployment, post-traumatic stress disorder, survivor’s guilt, plus the enforced closeted-ness of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’” Choi added. “It’s toxic.”
Choi’s point was tragically illustrated the day before by the shootings at Fort Hood, the country’s largest Army post, which left 13 people dead and 29 injured in Texas. The alleged gunman, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, counseled soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan. As of Nov. 9, Hasan was in critical but stable condition at a Texas hospital, but the motives behind the rampage remain unclear.
Choi called the shootings “disastrous” and said they not only drew attention to the stress of military life, but also to the need for as many capable soldiers as possible to help deal with emergency situations—whether at home or abroad. By discharging soldiers based solely on their sexual orientation, the military is losing valuable assets: 13,500 soldiers — including 60 Arabic interpreters — since the law was passed in 1993, he said.
“The biggest toll of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is not on the gay soldiers,” he said. “It’s the 13,500 platoons without these capable, honest soldiers that are the real victims.
“Those people don’t care if somebody is gay,” he said of the residents of the Fort Hood base. “They care if that person will keep them safe and can do his job in an emergency.”
“As we saw yesterday, we need all the help we can get,” Choi said.
Choi’s Nov. 6 talk was co-sponsored by the UCSF LGBT Center and the UCSF Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on GLBT Issues.
Related Links:
Knights Out (a support group for LGBT soldiers that Choi co-founded)