U. S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-7th Dist.), who is hoping to unseat longtime incumbent U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (D) in the spring primary, received two endorsements this week from national LGBT-rights advocates.
On Monday, openly gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and former Army Lt. Dan Choi, who is being discharged from the military under its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, came out in support of Sestak in Philadelphia.
At a press conference Monday morning at the Center City law firm of Kohn, Swift and Graf, P.C., Frank called Sestak a “true Democrat” and referred to Specter, who left the Republican Party in April to become a Democrat, a “Republican by choice and Democrat by necessity.”
Frank went on to praise Sestak’s commitment to overturning the Defense of Marriage Act and the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and pledged to return to the area in the spring to do more campaigning on his behalf.
Frank noted, however, that he did not want to comment on what impact he thinks his support of Sestak could have on local voters, so as not to appear “obnoxiously arrogant” or “unbelievably humble.”
Choi also announced Monday that he was throwing his public support behind Sestak.
Choi, who is undergoing discharge following his disclosure on the “Rachel Maddow Show” last spring that he’s gay, said he met Sestak at a gay-pride event this summer in San Francisco.
“That was the day before I had to go before the Discharge Board, so I was really on an emotional rollercoaster and once we met, the Congressman was one of the first people to really go out there and collect support for me. He wrote a statement for me to give to the board and since then has been such a vocal supporter,” Choi said.
Sestak, the highest-ranking veteran ever elected to Congress, has written letters to President Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, urging them to take action on the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and recently pressed for an investigation of torture claims by a discharged gay vet.
“Dan’s said before and I agree that [‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’] asks people to live a lie,” Sestak said. “It diminishes their service. The military is supposed to value integrity and honesty. I remember what Dan said on the ‘Rachel Maddow Show:’ ‘I love the Army.’ Here’s someone who loved the service and wasn’t down on the institution at all, even though he couldn’t be a part of it. He loved it and wanted to be, as the Army slogan says, all he could be. Without that important thread of the gay community, our military can’t be all we can be. It isn’t healthy for us to go forward like this.”
Through his work with Sestak, Choi said he realized that the candidate’s support for the LGBT community is genuine and not fostered for political gain.
“You have to look at and judge leaders based on what they stand for, and I have no problem with endorsing and supporting 100 percent the basic ideals and principles that Joe Sestak has,” Choi said. “We don’t see a lot of leaders like him. A lot of politicians will do things based on political expediency and the reading of polls, and you see that in both the Democratic and Republican parties, but those people forget everything that they’re supposed to stand for, which is a betrayal of everything I learned as a soldier. To be a real leader, you have to understand your values and what you stand for and go from there, and that’s what is so attractive and magnetic about Joe.”
Choi said he’s seen many politicians who agree that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” should be ended, but who are hesitant to take as public a stance as Sestak.
“There are a lot of people who essentially are afraid to come out in support of the gay community,” Choi said. “I think that what Joe’s done is really a hallmark of somebody who’s attuned not only to the gay community but to issues in general, as we head toward the direction of people seeing that this as a civil-rights issue. We need leaders who are able to step up and do the right thing.”
Sestak said he will continue to press for hearings on the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which seeks to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” A version of the bill has not yet been introduced in the Senate, and Sestak said that, if he’s elected and such legislation has not yet made it to the legislative body, he would take the lead “in a heartbeat.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].