Gay Guardsman Still Drills With Unit

A New York National Guard Soldier who last year announced his homosexuality on national television is again drilling with his unit, The New York Times reported Friday.

Lt. Dan Choi, who has been away from his unit since coming out publicly last March, said he participated in exercises last weekend at the urging of his commander, Lt. Col. John Andonie.

The unit, the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment, is preparing for a possible deployment to Afghanistan in 2012.

“I’m more out, I think, than anybody,” Choi said in an interview with the Times.

After telling MSNBC television host Rachel Maddow that he was gay, Choi was recommended for discharge at a hearing last June. The Pentagon must make a final decision on his status.

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President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address earlier this month called for a repeal of the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ law prohibiting gays from serving openly. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mike Mullen then declared support for the effort and Gates called for a yearlong study into how best to repeal the law.

Choi, a 28-year-old Arabic linguist, served in Iraq previously with the 10th Mountain Division. Since last year, he has been performing administrative duties rather than formal drilling with his Guard unit. But a spokesman for the unit confirmed to the Times that he had participated in recent drills and said he would continue to do so until he was discharged.

“We do not have an issue with it,” said the spokesman, Lt. Col. Paul Fanning. “It’s a deeply personal thing. To us a Soldier is a Soldier is a Soldier.”

Andonie, the commander, declined to be interviewed.