An Iraq war veteran has been ordered out of the US military after publicly announcing his homosexuality in a direct challenge to the army’s controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

Lieutenant Dan Choi, who speaks fluent Arabic, outed himself in March in the military journal Army Times and on national television at the launch of Knights Out, an association representing gay and lesbian graduates of West Point military academy.

He said that his declaration was a protest against a policy that forced soldiers to lie in order to serve their country. “It’s an immoral code that goes against every single thing we were ever taught at West Point with our honour code,” he said.

As the New York National Guard weighed his fate, Lieutenant Choi, 28, spoke out at more gay rights events, appearing most recently as a celebrity grand marshal in Sunday’s Gay Pride march in San Francisco.

On Tuesday a military board recommended that he should no longer be recognised as an officer, a decision that must be finally approved by superiors but which amounts to an effective discharge.

Lieutenant Choi vowed to fight the decision, saying that it amounted to firing him “for nothing more than telling the truth about who I am”. He added: “I’m a leader. A setback is an opportunity to keep fighting, and I’m going to do that through my actions.”

His departure will be a significant loss for the military. At West Point he majored in Arabic language and environmental engineering, skills that he put to use during a 15-month tour of Iraq beginning in 2006.

He led combat patrols in the Triangle of Death and served as a translator and teacher of Arabic to troops. He used his engineering skills in helping to rebuild schools and hospitals.

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