The 28-year-old infantry platoon leader defied the military gay ban by coming out live on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow TV show.

Soon after, the army made plans to fire him, saying he had “negatively affected good order and discipline in the New York Army National Guard.”

Capturing people’s attention worldwide for his public declaration, Choi continues to generate headlines, putting himself at the forefront of a movement aimed at freeing military personnel from the burden of keeping their sexual orientation secret for fear of losing their jobs.

Choi is a co-founder of Knights Out, a support group comprising graduates from the US Military Academy of West Point.

The organisation’s mission is both to lobby for the rights of LGBT soldiers to openly serve their country, and to educate West Point’s future military leaders about the need to accept its lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans troops.

Thousands of people have signed an online letter posted by the Courage Campaign to show support for Choi which he planned to hand in at court this morning.

The singer visited an Orange RockCorps volunteer project in Manchester to help Body Positive North West, a support centre for people affected by HIV.

She told reporters: “I have lots of people in my life who have been affected by the virus and a lot of gay and lesbian friends who are confronted with fears about that sort of lifestyle and the situation of HIV that we have to be mindful of everyday.

“I just wanted to spend some time with them today, and do a bit of painting with them today.”
In return for four hours voluntary work at community-based charity projects, volunteers will earn a ticket to watch Lady Gaga perform at the Manchester Apollo on 13th July in the first Orange RockCorps gig of 2009.

Yesterday, the star helped to turn a car-park into an effervescent garden open to anyone living with or affected by HIV. Projects included painting, planting vegetables and building a seating area. Gaga helped out with a huge mural portrait that volunteers had created in her image, painting the words “Love + Art + Kindness” in pink onto it.

Stephen Greene, RockCorps co-founder and CEO comments: “Lady Gaga is an incredible artist. It’s thrilling that she’s bringing her unique energy and passion to one of our community projects. By doing so, she will inspire many others to volunteer. Plus – we all can’t wait for the gig at the Apollo.”

The Orange RockCorps programme will also be amplified via a partnership with Sony Ericsson and Channel 4, who will broadcast the volunteer work and UK gigs during a summer of programming on T4.

Ian Halperin said he has spoken to two men who slept with the singer, who died of a suspected heart attack last Thursday.

Halperin has claimed that the late singer was gay, but added that despite allegations of sexual abuse by Jordan Chandler and Gavin Arvizo, Jackson was never interested in children. He did however, state that Jackson was attracted to men who were younger than him.

Writing in the Daily Mail, he said: “In the course of my investigations, I spoke to two of his gay lovers, one a Hollywood waiter, the other an aspiring actor. The waiter had remained friends, perhaps more, with the singer until his death last week. He had served Jackson at a restaurant, Jackson made his interest plain, and the two slept together the following night. According to the waiter, Jackson fell in love.”

He added that the waiter showed him evidence of his alleged affair with Michael, including photographs of the pair together.

Halperin, who has already written a book titled ‘The Final Years Of Michael Jackson’, claimed the singer had just six months to live last December.

In 2006, the singer’s brother Jermaine Jackson revealed he and his brothers thought the star was gay.

Jermaine said that at the height of Jackson 5′s fame they met lots of women and all eventually fell in love but “Michael, well, he wasn’t interested. We used to quietly say that we couldn’t have a gay brother.”

In a statement, he said: “I have been campaigning for LGBT human rights for 40 years. I was one of the group of people who helped organise Britain’s first gay pride parade in 1972″.

Calling many of those invited “tame apologists for Labour”, Tatchell said the same “selective invitation criteria” was applied when Gordon Brown hosted a Downing Street reception for LGBT campaigners back in March.

“An insider tipped me off that my name had been removed from the invite list, at Gordon Brown’s personal request. He was apparently still angry that I had heckled him over his government’s erosion of civil liberties, when he opened the Taking Liberties exhibition at the British Library late last year,” he said.

Last week, Gordon Brown sent a message of support to the LGBT community, ahead of this Saturday’s annual Pride London parade. He wrote: “We (the Labour government) won’t ever give up on the fight for equality – we are marching with you every step of the way.”

Brown has declined invitations to march on Saturday’s gay pride parade, citing “security considerations”. PinkNews.co.uk reported yesterday that his wife Sarah will join the parade instead.

Tatchell attacked the government’s support of civil partnerships, saying: “He [Brown] claims to support gay equality but his government actually endorses some aspects of homophobic discrimination.

“It supports the ban on same-sex marriage. Civil partnerships are not equality. They are a form of sexual apartheid, with different laws for gay and straight couples.

“I don’t do my human rights work to win awards, honours or invites. It doesn’t matter to me that I haven’t been invited.

“What angers me is the principle – the way the Prime Minister invites and fetes mostly tame pro-Labour loyalists in the LGBT community. It is a manipulative tactic by an insecure government that knows its record on LGBT human rights is not as glorious as it claims.”

A Downing Street spokesman told PinkNews.co.uk: “It’s not a reception, it’s a very small meeting. The prime minister and Sarah Brown will meet organisers of Pride and others who have contributed to the event. You could fill number 10 with people who have been involved in gay rights.”