Lt. Dan Choi tweets From a Russian Jail After Moscow's Attempt at Pride
Lt. Dan Choi, the LGBT activist and West Point graduate that became a media staple during the battle to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, has been arrested in Moscow for attending a gay pride parade along with more than 30 other domestic and foreign activists. Interestingly enough, Moscow police allowed Lt. Choi to keep his cell phone with him in jail, which has allowed him to use Twitter to narrate the entire legal process.“This has been my favorite pride march yet,”Lt. Choi tweeted from jail. The decision to allow protesters to keep their telephones in jail and use them to report on the experience seems strange, though demonstrates the heightened level of respect given to foreigners protesting in the country. Lt. Choi also noted that fellow protesters claimed they were being treated better than at other attempted rallies because foreigners were present, but that the US Embassy, while sending his passport, had not loudly condemned the arrests. He also told the story of several people that were arrested not for attempting a gay rights march, but simply for being shirtless. One woman was also apparently arrested for being “beautiful:”
According to Lt. Choi’s last tweet, he has been released and is waiting for his fellow protesters to be released, which compose only half of those arrested (the other half, according to several reports, are mostly anti-gay Neo Nazi protesters). For more, Queerty has video of the protests as well as a live timeline by UK Gay News. Lt. Choi has also promised appearances this month at Wichita Pride and several other American events (many Pride events are held in June to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising)– though chances are he won’t get to tweet from a jail cell on this side of the world.
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