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After coming out on thein 2009, being served with a discharge from the Army, chaining himself to the White House gates and becoming the face of the campaign to repeal "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell," Lt. Dan Choi briefly fell out of the public view. His cause fulfilled, it seemed as though he was retreating to private life, but in reality things were much more complicated.And now, a full three years later, he is running for a four-year term on the San Francisco Community College Board. First, a little background. Until Dan Choi came along, it seemed nobody had been able to articulate an effective opposition to "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell." (The 1993 policy, ostensibly a Clintonian compromise between pro and anti-gay legislators, wound up getting more active service personnel ejected from the military than the previous, more overtly homophobic policy.) Suddenly thrust everywhere, Choi spoke passionately against DADT not merely as an injustice but something that clashed irrevocably with West Point’s honor code. The timing was right, and in 2011 the Obama Administration repealed it.In some ways, Choi was a “likely unlikely activist.” Compared to the defendants in, who were neither hero material nor telegenic , Choi has always been an overachiever. A Model UN participant, a West Pointer who studied Arabic to the point of fluency, and a combat veteran, he was left in a curious position once his high-profile activism ended. Indeed, it can be argued that he suffered a nervous breakdown When the American Prospect profiled him last year , it was noted that he had lost all direction: Choi was occasionally delivering speeches to the tune of $10K a pop, but otherwise “wakes up most days with nothing do to,” and claims “he has no friends.” On top of it, his devout Korean-American family had cut him off.But that rough patch did not last. After a stint in Washington, D.C., the City College alum resurfaced in San Francisco, wasting little time before declaring his candidacy for the Community College Board November election. Although he’s been endorsed by progressive Sups. David Campos and Jane Kim, Choi has something of an uphill race, battling other six candidates (including the incumbent, Anita Grier) for three open seats. His fairly anodyne campaign statement , singling out “inefficiency” and “waste” at City College, sounds closer to Republican Meg Whitman than to some left-wing firebrand, and an emphasis on his veteran status probably wouldn’t play nearly as well in liberal San Francisco were he not also an LGBT folk hero.Whether or not he’s laying the groundwork for future political campaigns by starting near the very bottom — San Francisco doesn’t elect dog-catchers, so the Community College Board will have to do — Choi’s Tumblr reveals that the fund-raising circuit is taking him far from Balboa Park BART, mostly to NYC and to colleges in upstate New York.After a few years out of the limelight, his exposure groweth. However, several attempts to contact his campaign office to get a fuller sense of his goals (if elected) or any inkling of his future ambitions went unreturned.Two things are for certain: Choi’s assertions that this might be the last time San Francisco gets to vote for its troubled City College has merit. Also: Choi loves wordplay.He and his boyfriend, the actor-singer Jason Brock (who is best known for appearing on) use the hashtag #BrockChoi on social media, and his campaign site is “pro-choi.com.” As political websites go, it’s not overly slick, the Tumblr pics are frequently blurry, and the list of endorsements is hardly a smattering of A-Gays, but whether Dan Choi wins or loses on November 4, he isn’t going away.