Last night I attended the Republicans Against the Minnesota Marriage Amendment event at the W Hotel and got the opportunity to meet Representative Kriesel. The event was really nice, it was a smaller group and a more intimate setting. I arrived right before Rep. Kriesel spoke and he did a great job. When referring to the marriage amendment bill passing Congress he said, “we may have lost the battle, but we haven’t lost the war.” I thought this was such a true and inspiring message. This is not over and I believe the majority of Minnesotans believe in marriage equality. I am confident we will get the votes we need to beat this amendment!
After Rep. Kriesel gave his speech, I walked over and met him. I thanked him for
everything he has done for marriage equality and for taking a stand in Congress. I told him me and my family were so proud of him for speaking up on this issue. Then I asked to get a picture with him, so here is that picture (sorry for the poor quality, the room was dark). Ann Kaner-Roth was also there when I was talking with him and I asked her to be in the picture as well. Ann Kaner-Roth is the Executive Director of Project 515 and a friend of mine.
After I spoke with Rep. Kriesel, I began heading out and right before I left Jeff Wilfahrt stopped me. He showed me what Rep. Kriesel had signed in his book, see below. It refers to when Rep. Kriesel said if there was a “Hell No” button he could have pushed to vote down the marriage amendment he would have used it. I would like to leave you with that!
Lori Wilfahrt Speech at Outserve October 2011
Thanks to the Internet, I watched the mother of U.S. Army Corporal Andrew Wilfahrt (Killed In Action in Afghanistan in 2011) speak at the first conference of OutServe.org (The Association of Actively Serving LGBT Military Personnel) after the repeal of the military’s discriminatory Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) policy. For some fifty years I have been a student of, and participant in, public speaking, oral argument, and advocacy writing. Lori Wilfahrt’s speech was elegant: graceful, dignified, and powerfully simple.
Andrew Wilfahrt’s legacy is just beginning because of the extraordinary efforts of both his parents for the cause of marriage equality. For military and civilian gay people, marriage equality would mark the end of the last major vestige of government-sanctioned discrimination in our country. The ideal of equality is baked into the soul of America. The Founding Fathers considered the ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to be unalienable rights, even though their own lives did not reconcile discrimination based on race, gender, and sexuality. The reconciliation of the ideal in concept with the actual experience of equality has taken hundreds of years. Andrew’s legacy now contributes to that reconciliation of equality, through the speeches of his parents (multiplied on the Internet) and conversations around “Andrew’s Round Table.”
I can imagine that the spirit of Cpl. Andrew Wilfahrt is dancing for joy to experience his mom and dad speaking with such elegant power. With grace and dignity, they are embracing positions of advocacy accidentally arising because their son (who happened to be gay) had the courage to volunteer for the military, and gave his life serving a country founded on the ideal of equality.