Ashwin MadiaAshwin Madia, the DFL-endorsed candidate for the 3rd Congressional District, penned a column Tuesday speaking out on his experience as a Marine Corps lawyer defending a Marine who was being discharged for being gay. The column, posted on Minnesota Campaign Report and the Bilerico Project, comes on the eve of historic hearings in the House Armed Services subcommittee on "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" and its detrimental effects on military members. The following is an excerpt of that column:

I am a Marine Corps veteran, an Iraq war veteran and the Democratic candidate for Congress in Minnesota’s Third District, so I hear a lot about patriotism these days. But real patriotism sometimes means taking on the system if you know what you’re doing is the right thing. As a Marine Corps lawyer, I was one of the first attorneys to successfully defend a gay Marine from discrimination by the military.

In 2005, my client, Private First Class (PFC) Smith [real name not disclosed], was found to have downloaded gay pornography onto a government computer. On the exact same day, another Marine was found with straight pornography on his government computer. The straight Marine received a verbal reprimand by the commanding officer. The gay Marine was given: a demotion in rank, loss of pay, restricted in his movements on base, and most severe of all, an administrative separation from the Marine Corps with an Other-Than-Honorable (OTH) discharge, just one step below a court martial.

An OTH discharge is typically reserved for Marines who exhibit a serious pattern of misconduct over time — disobeying orders, talking back to superior officers, chronic patterns of not showing up or failing physical examinations. An OTH discharge means you lose all your veterans benefits and it shows up on every college application and future job application for the rest of your life.

I presented PFC Smith’s case to a review panel composed of senior Marine officers and enlisted Marines. This isn’t a typical jury made up of soccer moms and high school gym teachers. I argued that there was no justification for the disparity in punishment given to the straight Marine and PFC Smith. Ultimately, the Panel overruled the commanding officer’s recommendations and retained PFC Smith. Overruling a commanding officer’s recommendation is a rare event in the Marines. In fact it’s so rare that I never saw it happen again during four years of being a lawyer in the Marine Corps.

The panel’s decision shocked quite a few people. But that’s not the best part of the story.

Be sure to visit Minnesota Campaign Report and the Bilerico Project to find out how the story ends.