Choi Supports Moscow’s Gays

Army lieutenant Dan Choi, one of the service members who fought for the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” has posted a video online of his trip to Moscow, where he is protesting the city’s ban on gay pride celebrations.

“I am here in Russia in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are fighting for the basic right to express their identity,” Choi says in the video, posted on YouTube Thursday by Chicago’s Gay Liberation Network. In Russia, the struggle for LGBT rights is on a more “basic, fundamental level” than in the United States, he says.

He adds: “This is a different kind of battlefield from all the battlefields I’ve seen. On this battlefield our only weapon is truth, our only armor integrity, and our only ammunition is love.”

The video closes by urging calls to the Russian embassy in the U.S. to protest the ban on pride events — which activists say will go on Saturday despite the official prohibition. Watch below.