Vincent Pham, one of the organizers of the event, passed along this information. We’ll feature it in Listen Up on Monday also, but thought that a little extra notice would be warranted:
WHAT: An Evening with Lt. Dan Choi
WHEN: Monday, Feb. 15 @ 7 p.m.
WHERE: Illini Union Ballroom
From the event announcement:
On March 19, 2009, Lt. Dan Choi, a Korean American West Point graduate and Iraq veteran fluent in Arabic, announced that he was gay on The Rachel Maddow Show. Because of three words — “I am gay” — Lt. Choi’s life changed forever.
Despite his extreme value as an Arabic speaker, one month after his announcement, Lt. Dan Choi was notified that the Army had begun discharge proceedings against him. He was one of only eight soldiers from his graduating class who majored in Arabic.
Lt. Choi is a founding member of Knights Out – an organization of West Point alumni advocating for the rights of gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military. He was also featured on the cover of the December issue of Out magazine as one of the 100 LGBT community members of the year. Lt. Choi was again featured on the cover of Instinct magazine as one of the Leading Men of 2009 – celebrating heroes who stand up and stand out.