If you’ve spent any time in the liberal news-web at all, you know who Lt. Dan Choi is. Choi was discharged from the military two years ago “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and became the highest profile activist in the nation for its repeal. Here’s a bit from his wikipedia page:

Choi received a discharge letter following his coming out on The Rachel Maddow Show. In response, Choi penned an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama and the United States Congress.[11] In the letter, Choi challenged the morality and wisdom of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, writing that the policy is “a slap in the face to me. It is a slap in the face to my soldiers, peers and leaders who have demonstrated that an infantry unit can be professional enough to accept diversity, to accept capable leaders, to accept skilled soldiers.”

Despite his appeal and a Courage Campaign petition signed by almost 162,000 people,[12] on June 30, 2009, a panel of New York National Guard officers recommended that Choi be discharged from the military.[13] As of February 2010, Choi was serving again in his National Guard reserve unit, the discharge having not yet been “finalized”.[14] On June 29, 2010, Choi’s discharge was finalized.[1]

Choi is among 59 gay Arabic linguists, along with nine gay Farsi linguists, who have faced a discharge from the U.S. military from 2004 through 2009, according to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.[15]

Here’s Part 1 (the video portion) of my sit-down with Lt. Dan Choi before his talk last week at Norwich University in Northfield, on April 5th. Lt. Choi talked freely about a range of topics over the course of our 20 minutes or so. In this video segment, he talks a bit about his impressions of Norwich University before going on to discuss the nature of this historical moment we find ourselves in vis-a-vis equality (and what a privilege it is to be a part of it). He also gets a kick out of my calling him a celebrity (he – in progressive activist circles he’s a superstar!), discusses activism in general, and spends some time on the question of why, during the Tea Party backlash, progress on GLBT rights still seems to be creeping forward. Choi discusses how the activism around equality in the 21st century is more about personal identification, rather than than making legislative demands, and talks about the “honor” implicit in the act of coming out.

Part two, where Choi discusses his Christian faith, among many other topics, will be in good ol’ fashioned text. Look for it in the next couple days.