Op-ed: Father of Fallen Gay Soldier Inspires With Run 

While
others in the military celebrated the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell”
policy in joy, Jeff and Lori Wilfahrt celebrated in grief. That’s when
documentarian Kristina Lapinski and I first met the parents of Corporal Andrew
C. Wilfahrt, who died while stationed in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

After
filming their interview for GAY U.S.A. the Movie at the historic first OutServe Conference in Las Vegas
last year, we were both impressed by Jeff Wilfahrt, this unassuming man who has
more than served his citizenry. He testified before the Minnesota state
legislature against passing a constitutional amendment defining marriage as “between
a man and a woman only,” campaigned for the repeal of DADT and lost his
son in an American war. Yet his lifelong sense of parity compels him further,
and Jeff Wilfahrt is now running for the Minnesota State House of
Representatives in a candidacy that has national implications for equality.

Over
the months, our relationship developed until now when our filmmaker plans to
move in with the family for two weeks and document their unintended political
campaign.

Wilfahrt
is running in District 57B, a seat currently held by Republican Kurt Bills who
is a staunch pro-lifer, a self acclaimed “non-environmentalist,” and voted for
the anti-gay marriage amendment. He’s leaving the seat to run for U.S. Senate.
Jeff Wilfahrt will campaign in a district with a reputation for being moderate,
yet recent redistricting may have turned it red with Bills a clear Tea Party
panderer.

Running
on a three “E” ticket — “Economy, Equality and Education” — Jeff Wilfahrt
notes, “I’ve always had a strong sense of fairness and tried to help ‘right the
wrongs.’ This sense was never stronger and clearer to me as when the Minnesota
State government moved to allow the marriage amendment to be placed on the
November 2012 ballot.”

For
the last year, the Wilfahrt family has taken charge of their son’s memory,
refusing to assume spectatorship in a society that regards his memory as that
of second-class citizen.  Corporal Andrew
Wilfahrt was serving as an MP in the U.S. Army when he was killed by an IED
near Kandahar, Afghanistan. Jeff Wilfahrt notes with great pride in speeches
across the country that his son’s platoon named their combat outpost after him,
COP WILFAHRT.  “Andrew was a great
warrior and beloved by his fellow soldiers,” Wilfahrt says. “He was also an openly
gay soldier.”  

A self-confessed introvert, the loving
father of a daughter who graduated from Cornell and a younger son in graduate
school in North Carolina, Wilfahrt has his campaign cut out for him as he
musters his own troops. He’ll do it with a familial courage, casting aside
privacy, and determined to effectuate equality for all in Minnesota. Jeff Wilfahrt
has entered the race not only to address the “discrimination and inhumanity” of
the marriage amendment, “but also to address the many inequities we seem to be
building into our communities.”

Jeff Wilfahrt is tackling the equality
debate with a unique fervor and schooled notions. He has taken time to
intellectualize the social complexity of speaking as an equality advocate to
those in Red America. He has found the language he believes could penetrate the
socially conservative Republican arena. Jeff Wilfahrt has what many in his
position do not have, the ability to hone traditionalist ethics as a way to
communicate the imperative of equality. He may well be the voice in the Minnesota
House that shifts the paradigm.

Jeff Wilfahrt’s
campaign on the Issue of equality, notes with clarity of conviction, “Our
state constitution cannot become an avenue for infringing on the rights of those
we disagree with by legislating through amendments.  It’s a document that
protects our rights and is not a vehicle for taking them away. A legislator’s job
is to write and pass laws based on an informed sense of the whole community they serve.”

Ascribing to the view that candidates who
run on equality tickets, no matter where, whether in small local races or on
the national stage, run for each and every gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender person in this entire country, Jeff Wilfahrt’s campaign is of national
importance.  

This imperative cumulative effect of
equality awareness must permeate from each and every corner of this country, to
impact the ultimate last frontier in the civil rights fight for freedom in
America.  Hence as Jeff Wilfahrt’s
license to this beckoning seat implores LGBT America to support his
campaign, GAY U.S.A. the Movie
plans to follow and film Jeff Wilfahrt on an equality tour of Minnesota this
month as he meets activists, politicians, and parents involved in the
Anoka-Hennepin School District antibullying issue.

MELANIE
NATHAN is a lawyer and conflict resolution specialist who advocates for LGBT
equality and human rights in San Francisco and internationally. She is a speaker,
blogger (www.oblogdeeoblogda.wordpress.com) and co-produces GAY USA the Movie (www.gayusathemovie.com).