Former Lieutenant Dan Choi was the subject of Michelle Martin’s Tell Me More show on NPR today, a fitting series to feature a man who was explicitly instructed not to ask and not to tell. Choi, an Iraq war veteran who declared his homosexuality to the public in March of this year, was given the pink slip last week for violating what’s been coined the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, enacted during the Clinton administration.

According to Title 10 of the U.S. Code, people who are gay are allowed to serve in the military only on the condition that they do not reveal their sexual orientation. Disclosing such information, the military insists, would interfere with “the bonds of trust among individual service members that make the combat effectiveness of a military unit greater than the sum… of the individual unit members.” The military furthers declares “There is no constitutional right to serve in the armed forces,” and that “It lies within the discretion of the congress to establish qualifications for and conditions of service in the armed forces.”

Title 10, or the policy concerning homosexuality in the armed forces, reads not unlike an article from The Onion. Relying on grandiose explanations about the merits of patriotism but still lacking lucidity, the policy neglects to mention how being gay–or, even more after-the-fact, telling someone about it–would compromise ability to perform up to par.  It’s a stretch of the imagination, at best, to see the underlying logic. But then, that much is obvious. The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell practice has earned a reputation for its sweep-it-under-the-rug solution that has has gay rights activists sour for years.

The NPR interview with Choi states that more than 13,000 soldiers who are gay have been discharged from the military since 1994 on the grounds that their mere mention of their sexuality had the capacity to put the military at risk. Choi himself has since become an avid activist, campaigning for gay rights. He finds the insinuation that his sexual orientation is the weak link of the army offensive:

Men and women of character fill the ranks of the military. They’re not children. They’re not kids that we say ‘Oh my God. They’re so uncomfortable, we have to protect them.  They’re not going to be able to deal with it.’  That’s insulting to them. They go overseas and they fight terror and they’re getting blown up and shot at. And we go through these things together.  You don’t care what the person on your right and left, what their sexual orientation is. You work together and that diversity actually helps to build a unit. People learn more about each other.

He’s now pitted against the Pentagon in an effort to get the policy overturned. In June of this year, the Supreme Court declined to hear a constitutional challenge to the policy, leaving President Barack Obama in position similar to former president Bill Clinton back in 1993. Like Clinton, Obama has voiced his opposition to the exclusion of gays in the military, but it seems he’s determined to not allow history to repeat itself: undoubtedly hoping to avoid the backlash that Clinton experienced trying to overturn the ban, Obama is moving much more slowly.

As The Washington Times reported, Obama stated at a June 29 gay pride celebration at the White House that expanding gay rights will take time:

I know that many in this room don’t believe that progress has come fast enough, and I understand that. It’s not for me to tell you to be patient any more than it was for others to counsel patience to African-Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half-century ago.

Gay rights advocates are still eager for a repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act as well.

As for Choi, he intends to keep sharing his message until–or perhaps even after–legislation has changed.  “When you come out of the closet,” he says, “You do it so that the other guy, so that somebody else down the line can realize, ‘Wow, I am not alone. I do not have to feel ashamed. I do not have to commit suicide. I do not have to be depressed because there’s somebody else out there.’  And as long as that’s the case, as long as there’s people that need to hear that message,  I will tell.”

To hear the full interview, go here.