Often lost in the ado over DADT repeal were the stories of the actual gay and lesbian soldiers who have fought and died for this country, so when a friend sent me this article, I wanted to share the story of Cpl. Andrew Wilfahrt with you all:
[Jeff Wilfahrt's] 31-year-old son was killed while on foot patrol outside Kandahar on February 27, around the same day the Sheen media blitz kicked into high gear.
[...]
Andrew Wilfahrt was a Renaissance man with an infectious laugh. In his obituary, his parents described him as “compassionate, smart and witty. He was an admirer, composer and player of music who believed deeply in art and humanity. Andrew was fascinated by math, palindromes, maps, patterns, mashed potatoes and the absurd.”
He was also anti-war – part of a “strong family of lefties” from Minnesota, his father said. Andrew stunned everyone when he announced two years ago he was joining the Army.
“He didn’t have a child and a wife,” Jeff Wilfahrt said. “In a way, he went over so that somebody with a young family wouldn’t die.”
The grieving father added, “He was a gay soldier.”
[...]
“Andrew told me one of the reasons he wanted to enlist was that he felt guilty as a civilian when so many men with wives and children were separated from their families,” one of his comrades posted on Facebook. “He joined the fight so that guys like me didn’t have to. He is my hero, my friend, and I miss him. Sleep well, buddy. You earned it.”
Andrew’s younger sister, Martha, said the “least interesting thing” about her brother was his sexuality.
“Quite frankly,” the father said, “nobody gave a s*** he was gay. He was a good soldier.”
The piece later mentions that Wilfahrt rode with an African-American guy and a Hawai’an guy in combat, and that they called themselves “Team Minority.” I love it.
Regardless of how you personally feel about the various wars we’re involved in [let us please not have that discussion right now, because I said so], I think we can all agree that this was the sort of guy we want fighting for us. It’s phenomenal that people still exist in this country who wouldn’t be able to get past Andrew Wilfahrt’s sexuality to see his heroism.
The reactions from fundamentalist Christian leaders in the wake of the repeal of DADT have been comical, to say the least, and the hits just keep on coming. Yesterday, Jeremy posted the new cover from WorldNetDaily’s Whistle Blower magazine, and it’s pretty funny:
Now today, there’s a piece at OneNewsNow which asks, without a hint of humor, “What about the rights of Christians in the military?”, as if they were somehow threatened.
A former Navy chaplain has launched a petition drive aimed at defending military chaplains and Christian troops from persecution by proponents of homosexuality.
In December, Lt. Col. Stacy L. Maxey (USAF), who is stationed in Afghanistan, wrote a letter to the editor of Stars and Stripes arguing that the Department of Defense has now become the “Department of Double Standards,” in telling service members who have a problem with the homosexual lifestyle to “learn to deal with it,” while at the same time allowing homosexuals to “parade their lifestyle choices in front of all.”
Did you miss the part where gay soldiers already have to “learn to deal with” the fact that there are a few retrograde wingnuts who are upset about their “lifestyle choices”? Sounds like equal rights to me. Of course, these little conservative children never seem to understand that gay soldiers “parading their lifestyle choices” amounts to little more than what their straight counterparts have been doing for years, e.g. mentioning the name of the spouse they left back at home, possibly displaying a picture of their spouse [being GAAAAY] just as prominently as the straight soldier who sleeps next to them.
Maxey went on to write that he has a higher commitment to God than to the Department of Defense — and that if officials there are upset with his comments, they can “learn to deal with it.” Groups like the Military Religious Freedom Foundation have criticized the Air Force officer for his comments, demanding Maxey be punished for insubordination.
You know, when they start talking about how they have a “higher commitment to [their idea of] God” than anything else, they sound just like Islamic radicals. And yes, that’s straight-up insubordination.
Gordon Klingenschmitt, a former Navy chaplain who was discharged from the service in 2007 after praying in Jesus’ name while in uniform…
You knew he would show up in this piece. I feel it’s always important to remind people that Klingenschmitt is lying when he says he was discharged for “praying in Jesus’ name.” This information comes to us via his former boss, who is very much an Evangelical Christian, and who is ashamed of what has become of Klingenschmitt:
“I was the dishonored ex-chaplain’s supervisor for the past 2 years,” Holcomb wrote in his message. “I found him to be totally untruthful, unethical and insubordinate.He was and is contemptuous of all authority. He was not court martialed for praying in Jesus’ name. I sent him out in uniform every week to pray at various ceremonies and functions. He always prayed in uniform and in Jesus’ name. He was never told that he could not pray in Jesus’ name. In fact, the issue of prayer had nothing at all to do with his dismissal from the Navy. He disobeyed the lawful order of a senior officer. I am sure that you understand that Navy Regulations forbid any of us, regardless of rank or position, to appear in uniform in support of any political or partisan event.”
Holcomb goes on to say, “He appeared in direct support of a political event, demonstrating contempt for the order of his Commanding Officer and Naval Regulations that we all swear that we will abide by…. The ex-chaplain is a man without honor and you have accepted his story and in doing so you have had ‘the wool pulled over your eyes.’
Again, that’s from his former boss, who also happens to be an Evangelical Christian. You see, among every subset of people and every religious affiliation, there are people with integrity and people without it. Klingenschmitt’s former boss seems to be a man with integrity, and he is appalled that his former charge has so little. Back to the OneNewsNow piece for a minute:
[Klingenschmitt] has launched an online fax petition campaign aimed at protecting the religious expression of chaplains and other religious troops.
“Now that homosexuals are coming out and being blatant and flaunting their homosexual lifestyle, do the Christian troops have a right to separate shower facilities? Separate sleeping quarters? To not be sexually harassed on the job by somebody who’s hitting on them?” he wonders.
1. No.
2. No.
3. Yes, because sexual harassment is already covered by the UCMJ, and DADT repeal does not change that.
But let’s be honest here: any sane heterosexual human would be far more comfortable in a shower with a mature, responsible, openly gay person than they would with a leering closet case fundamentalist Christian, since we know that those with the most intense homophobia [religious-based or not; they use the religion as a shield] very often are those who are deepest in the closet, ashamed of who they are, what they feel, etc. And for the sake of equality, those soldiers aren’t being shuffled off to different shower facilities either. Of course, if they pull anything, they too fall under the UCMJ.
“We need protection for Christian troops,” he continues, “and that’s why we’re asking Congressman Walter Jones (R-North Carolina) and Congressman Mike McIntyre (D-North Carolina) to strengthen the laws to at least give Christians the same right to be open about their religious faith as the homosexuals now have to be open about their aberrant lifestyle.”
They already have it. Always have, always will. This is why fundamentalist wingnuts are usually so easy to pick out; because they’re loud and obnoxious.
In addition, Klingenschmitt is convinced the Pentagon wants to purge evangelical, Bible-preaching chaplains from the service by giving them an ultimatum — “reconcile” with homosexual sin, or quit.
Yes, well, paranoia is a dangerous thing, but there’s medicine.
UPDATE: It just gets funnier. Joe reports that Klingenschmitt has come up with a new way to charge each of his followers $159 to send faxes to all the members of Congress about how sad they are about DADT repeal.
According to biblical principles, marriage is between a man and a woman , so we have to say “what happens when a nation makes a decision that’s against God’s principles?” Well, often what happens is that nature itself will begin to talk to us – for instance, violent storms, flooding. And you know there are actually some patterns that you can see where a nation will make a decision that is contrary to the principles of God and after that there is some kind of answer that God gives, being the God of creation, the God who created nature, but we don’t always understand what He’s saying.
Well, there’s something interesting we have been watching – let’s talk about this Arkansas pattern and say, could it be a pattern? We’re going to watch and see. But the blackbirds fell to the ground in Beebe, Arkansas, well the Governor of Arkansas’ name is Beebe. And also, there was something put out of Arkansas called Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by a former Governor, this was proposed, Bill Clinton. As so, could there be a connection between this passage [Hosea 4] and now that we’ve had the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell where people now legally in the United States have broken restraints with the Scripture because the Scripture says in Romans 1 that homosexuality is not allowed.
It could be because we have said it’s okay for people who commit these kinds of acts to be recognized in our military for the first time in our history, there is a potential that there is something that actually happened in the land where a hundred thousand drum fish died and also where these birds just fell out of the air.
Is Sarah Palin supportive of the repeal of DADT? Has her Twitter been hi-jacked? Did she see a tweet with lots of misspelled words and feel an emotional connection, regardless of content? Inquiring minds want to know.
Yesterday, the uber-conservative lesbian radio host Tammy Bruce tweeted this, in a string of comments about DADT repeal:
But this hypocrisy is just truly too much. Enuf already–the more someone complains about the homos the more we should look under their bedabout 15 hours agovia webRetweeted by 95 people
So, what is she saying? Was “Sarah Palin” [you know she doesn't run her own Twitter or Facebook] following Tammy’s conversation and agreeing with her about DADT repeal? Was she just being catty?
Max Read at Gawker points out that it’s a wee bit unprofessional for a politician [but not for a reality teevee star or a professional Facebooker!] to be using the word “homo,” even if she’s retweeting someone else, and then he breaks down the possibilities for us:
She is coming out in support of DADT repeal and gay rights.Bruce thinks that Palin is expressing her point of view on “DADT, treatment of gays & attempts to marginalize us.” Which isn’t out of the question—Palin is not, in the context of her party, rabidly homophobic, and her stance on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was limited to a sort of feeble “not right now” back in February. So, yes, maybe reality ungulate-shooter Sarah Palin is expressing her solidarity with gay soldier-types via microblogging. What a blow for the forces of freedom and openness!
She didn’t understand the Tweet. It’s not the most professional way to come out, so to speak, in support of DADT repeal, is it? (Though, Jesus, why am I looking for professionalism from this woman of all people? I mean—she would come out for gay rights in a way that would piss off a lot of gay people, wouldn’t she?) It’s possible she—whoever is in charge of the Official Palin Twitter—just, well, didn’t get the joke, or didn’t understand the Tweet at all.
She clicked the wrong button. Maybe! Though the re-Tweet’s been up an awful long time.
She thinks we should be looking for gay people hiding under beds.
I say there is absolutely no telling which one of those options is closest to the truth, because we are dealing with Sarah Palin here.
This happened yesterday, and the tweet remains up, so I’m guessing #3 is out, while #2 and #4 are distinct possibilities.
Well, whatever, I’m sure she’ll be on The Foxes “clarifying” the whole thing in a four-minute run-on sentence sans verbs in the next 24 hours.
Comments sections at wingnut websites are always pretty funny, so I tend to question the logic of “Brian Fitzpatrick,” writing for WingNutDaily, when he chose to print a bunch of reader comments on the whiny Army Lieutenant Colonel who is simply so bigoted and fearful of gays that he’s asked to be relieved of his command, rather than have to confront whatever demons it is that inhabit him. But Brian Fitzpatrick highlighted them first, so I’ll just follow his lead. Here, y’all! It’s WingNutDaily readers, attempting to use words, mucking it up the whole way! Mock on!
The Department of Defense survey that was used as grounds to repeal DADT began by specifically saying that if DADT is repealed, the military would not lower standards for personal behavior. If we are to believe the authors of the survey, then all the repeal of DADT means is that people who are tempted to engage in gay sex will be allowed to enlist but they will still not be allowed to engage in that immoral behavior. If these sections of the Uniform Code of Military Justice were removed, it would constitute a betrayal of the assurances that all service members were given when they completed that survey.
Nice try!
I am a retired Navy chief petty officer who served 20 years continuous active service. When I wrote my two senators, I told them that those knuckleheads forcing this law on the military have never, and I mean never, been asleep in a bunk and been awakened by a hand slowly moving around your “junk” or perhaps kissing you on various parts of your body.
It was the greatest night of his life, but he totally missed Reveille that day.
Do you think the military will rebel against the homosexuals in service when the barracks become hotbeds of same-sex orgies in rooms that are all pastel pink? I can see the draft coming back into force because people like my grandson, who is putting his life on the line so the queers can join up, has already said he will give up his career in the Marines if DADT is repealed. I am thinking he will be looking for a job as soon as his enlistment is up.
“Hot-beds of same-sex orgies”? Why do these people always assume that gays are so much more powerful than straight people [superheroes capable of upending the entire military, even], yet simultaneously big wussies who will paint everything pink? BECAUSE WE’RE BOTH. At least in the wingnut mind. This, again, for serious, is why “homophobia” is such an appropriate word for anti-gay nonsense: at the root of all their anger, their opposition, their schoolyard bullying tactics, is abject fear. More on that here.
When you consider the problems occurring in the French military, and in other European militaries, as well as the experiences of Australia’s military, you have to consider the fact that none of those countries has been as thoroughly inculcated with Christian values as our own, and all have had a far more “laissez faire” attitude toward homosexuality in general, than we ever have, yet they have had to make room for special units to control their problems. … As a Christian man myself, I strongly suspect we cannot keep a military, with this policy, without reverting to a draft, and I know I would not accept being drafted into an openly gay military, it would not happen, I would take up arms and march on Washington first. As a retired Marine, I can no longer suggest the armed forces as a career or even as a temporary start for life, but have to call it for what it has been turned in to, and what it will become.
“Valiant Marine” whose fear of gays far outweighs his love of country?
I am a captain in the medical corps of the U.S. Navy, with 25 years active duty, and significant time assigned in Marine units. I have observed an interesting behavioral shift in communal showers that is very clearly generational. Older guys like myself, who grew up when homosexuals were firmly in the closet, tend to be very unself-conscious. When we finish our shower, we throw the curtain to one side, grab our towel, and begin to dry off. We step out buck naked into the center area to get our clothes off the bench, and begin dressing. If anyone is watching, we are generally unconscious of it and take no notice. Not so with the younger generation that is highly conscious of homosexuals because they have grown up being constantly confronted with the issue. When the younger generation finish a shower, the curtain is moved a few inches to the side, and an arm will snake out to grab the towel on the hook. The towel disappears back into the stall and the curtain closes. When toweling stops, the soldier/sailor/marine emerges with the towel wrapped around his waist. Invariably, the first article of clothing donned is the athletic shorts, which are pulled up under the towel, which is only removed when the shorts are in place. The younger guys are very conscious of the possibility that some queer is secretly checking them out and it makes them very nervous to potentially be the object of another guy’s sexual interest. Times have changed, and for the worse.
Man, that wingnut has spent a lot of time observing men in military showers. Is that part of his medical certification, or is it extracurricular? Sounds like he’s bitterly bitching about the Good Old Days when guys let it fly for everybody to see, dontcha think?
Okay, there are so many more fun comments where that came from, so click the clicky and enjoy the wingnut psychosis on prominent display!
UPDATE: I somehow missed this comment on WND the first time around and it’s too funny not to post here:
I’m afraid Obama is overlooking a serious element to this matter. I’m referring, of course, to the reception open gays could meet in the military as enlisted personnel. I know something about this, NOT because I was gay (I wasn’t/am not) but when 20 I looked like one. I was super skinny (109 lbs) and I suspect that my slim face could have been made “pretty” with makeup.
‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house
Bryan Fischer was crying and hiding under stuff because he thought he saw a gay soldier ogling him in the kitchen.
So now, Bryan Fischer sez that, despite his earlier lies about gays being Nazis and Nazis being gays and gays being overly brutal and stuff, gays are actually “nancy-boys” who only join the military to ogle dudes and stuff, and now that DADT is repealed, we won’t be able to join just for the purposes of seeing patriotic dicks like Bryan’s in the shower, and seriously, I’m not kidding, I hope he has a Merry Christmas, because I imagine it’s very hard to enjoy things like holidays when you have so many demons playing hopscotch in your brain:
If a homosexual signs up now, he’s stuck with the whole magilla. Go to your superior officer now and say, hey, I’m a flaming homosexual, I hate the army, let me out of here, the superior officer will say, tough darts, those days are gone. You’re stuck with us now, Nancy-boy.
So, who’s sorry now?
This may be the silver lining in this whole mess. Conservative groups, simply as a public service, may want to sound this message far and wide out of simple, straightforward compassion, just in order to protect potential homosexual soldiers from themselves and from the distressing discovery that they just kissed off a handy exit option that nobody else had.
The more this message resounds, the fewer homosexuals will want to enlist. It’s one thing to be gay, and say, hey, I’ll give it a few weeks and then bail if I don’t like the food, can’t get enough action in the barracks, or thought I’d enjoy ogling male soldiers in the shower more than I did.
Those days are now shortly to be a distant memory for our homosexual friends. They enlist, they’re stuck with the whole program just like everybody else.
In other words, they had preferential treatment and special privileges, a status and privileges and an exit strategy denied to their honest and straight counterparts. And homosexuals just bargained it away. Now, they will discover to their dismay, they’re back to having equal rights instead of special rights.
Man, he is dumber than Peter LaBarbera, who we also wish a Merry, Merry Christmas! I hope Santa brings Peter everything he wants, which is probably something along these lines.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and I go way back. Here is a picture of us chilling in Fire Island.
Well, okay, the truth is we met just once — briefly — at a fundraiser. But there is no one I am more proud to have shared a moment with in all my years in the political arena. Sen. Gillibrand championed overturning the repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell. Through her relentless pursuit of equality her promise to the LGBT community became a reality. She is a major reason why we won this fight and Truth Wins Out is thrilled to call her an ally.
I still think back to that fundraiser this summer on Fire Island. She spoke with eloquence, passion and conviction about overturning the failed DADT policy. Was it simply a calculated political act or a genuine expression of support?
Well, we all know the answer to that question now. Congratulations, Mrs. Gillibrand.
Today, The New York Times had a feature story on Gillibrand’s ascent in the Senate that is well worth reading. Here are a few key snippets:
Pounding the lectern on the Senate floor, raising her voice almost to a shout, Ms. Gillibrand hectored, reasoned with and sought to shame her colleagues into ending the 17-year-old ban on gays’ serving openly in the military.
“If you care about national security, if you care about our military readiness,” she demanded, “then you will repeal this corrosive policy.”
The repeal passed two hours later on Saturday, but Ms. Gillibrand, a Democrat, had little time to savor the moment.
Her mother — a black belt in karate who the senator said “did things differently her whole life” — worked in the arts and surrounded herself with gay friends. During the height of the AIDS crisis, Ms. Gillibrand’s sister, a playwright and actress, volunteered to help children with AIDS.
And when Ms. Gillibrand was a young associate, working long nights at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, she recalled, “the straight men found time to date and get married and have kids and went home at six every night, and the only ones left were the women and gay men.”
So she wound up vacationing with gay colleagues on Fire Island and in the Hamptons, and forging lifelong friendships. “A lot of them are now having children,” she said. “And it never occurred to me that they should not have every benefit that I have.”
Richard Socarides, a former aide to President Bill Clinton and founder of Equality Matters, a gay advocacy organization, said he was initially wary of Ms. Gillibrand, thinking she was courting gays for purely political reasons as she sought to broaden her appeal statewide.
But she won him over with her fervor, strategic thinking, fearlessness and litigator’s tenacity. “If she has decided she’s going to get something done,” he said, “don’t get in her way, because you will get run over.”
There is much more to read in the story by David Halbfinger, so check it out.
I’ll end by saying how nice it was to write a post on a politician who did right by the LGBT community and made us proud. We usually pen articles about scoundrels and double-dealing hypocrites. But not this time – because Sen. Gillibrand IS THE REAL DEAL.
Not only is she the prettiest Senator, it turns out she may be one of the brightest and most effective. She has served New York with aplomb and the nation is fortunate to have such a wise and tenacious stateswoman. I hope she one day considers a run for the White House.
On behalf of Truth Wins Out — thank you for your leadership and support for equality. It will not be forgotten.
Often lost in the ado over DADT repeal were the stories of the actual gay and lesbian soldiers who have fought and died for this country, so when a friend sent me this article, I wanted to share the story of Cpl. Andrew Wilfahrt with you all:
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and I go way back. Here is a picture of us chilling in Fire Island.
