Politics

Lt. Dan Choi finds gay rights’ ‘salvation’ in GOP field

Steven Nelson Associate Editor
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Former Army Lieutenant Dan Choi, who was famously dismissed from the U.S. armed forces because he was gay, is fed up with President Obama’s lukewarm embrace of gay rights and continues to mull alternative candidates for 2012.

Choi told The Daily Caller in July that he was “seriously considering helping a viable challenger” to Obama, naming former New Mexico Republican Gov. Gary Johnson as one candidate he was considering.

“I lost significant trust in Obama and his fawning gay elites in the wake of recent homophobic court appeals and election-induced double-talk,” Choi said in July after the Justice Department appealed court decisions that mandated the immediate end of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

In a recent email to TheDC, Choi noted that Fred Karger, an openly gay Republican consultant running for president, is another candidate he likes.

“Gary Johnson and Fred Karger are the salvation of the Republican Party and I would choose either of these courageous leaders over Barack Obama any day,” Choi declared.

Johnson has defiantly stated that he is not a social conservative, and had made “tolerance” a centerpiece of his long-shot campaign.

Choi was discharged from the Army in 2010 after becoming a face of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal effort. He had previously served in Iraq as an Arabic translator.

He told TheDC that he plans to re-enlist on September 20, the day that the military’s policy officially ends.

“What a historic day that will be,” Choi said, “a homecoming of sorts.”