National Guardsman Lt. Dan Choi has been reinstated with his unit. While this does not signify the end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, it certainly is a good sign.

A National Guardsman who became a cause celebre among gay-rights groups last year, after announcing on The Rachel Maddow Show that he is gay and being recommended for discharge, has returned to training with his unit.

It appears that the development was prompted, if indirectly, by the increasing likelihood that DADT is on the way out.

Last week, amid news reports that senior military figures supported ending DADT, Choi was contacted by the commanding officer, who invited him to rejoin the unit.

The military isn’t saying exactly what triggered the move. “He’s been on duty,” Eric Durr, a spokesman for the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs, which oversees the New York National Guard, told TPMmuckraker. “He has never left the National Guard.” Durr referred all questions on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to the Department of Defense.

Choi warned that he may still be on shaky ground. “Good to be back with my unit,” he wrote, but added, “although I can still be fired at any moment for DADT.Don’t Tell to the Department of Defense.”

Despite his appeal and a Courage Campaign petition signed by 162,000 people, on June 30, 2009, a panel of New York National Guard officers recommended that Choi be discharged from the military. The final decision remains pending, but Choi’s being called back to rejoin his unit seems a rather clear sign of which way the winds are blowing.

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