DADT still in effect, as parents of gay soldier killed in Afghanistan post tribute to their son
Corporal Andrew Wilfahrt, a Minnesota native, died on foot patrol in Khandahar, Afghanistan in late February at age 31. He was gay.
Now his parents, Lori and Jeff Wilfahrt, have come forward with a tribute to their son for the Testimony: Take a Stand campaign. Lori and Jeff lament their son’s forced re-closeting when he enlisted, though “people in his unit knew he was gay…and nobody cared.”
Watch:
The Testimony: Take a Stand campaign of the Courage Campaign Institute asks: if you could take the stand in the historic trials even now being held on issues of LGBT equality, what would your testimony be? Visit the website to add your own testimony.
Meanwhile, another gay servicemember, Petty Officer 2nd Class Derek Morado of the U.S. Navy, earlier this week faced a discharge hearing under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell — in spite of the recent vote in Congress to repeal DADT. Morado had been outed in 2009 by another sailor who spotted a photo on Morado’s MySpace page of him kissing another man. Fortunately, a Navy panel in California yesterday unanimously voted to retain Morado.
A story today in Stars and Stripes reports,
Gay members of the armed forces could serve openly and keep their jobs legally by the end of the summer, Pentagon officials told Congress on Friday.
The Defense Department expects by midsummer to have completed enough “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal training that it can ask the president, defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to certify the results and begin the congressionally mandated 60-day countdown to full repeal.
So far only about 200,000 troops, about 9 percent of the U.S. armed forces, have undergone repeal training.
Tags: Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT), servicemembers & veterans, video