A preacher, a teacher, a soldier's parents, a GOP leader: Allies in marriage votes
By Wayne Drash
CNN
November 18, 2012
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
A diverse coalition joined forces to bring historic change on same-sex marriage
Minnesota parents of a fallen soldier who was gay worried his death would be in vain
Republican in Maine feared backlash but broke with party line anyway
A preacher in Maryland spoke up to counter media dominance of right-wing pastors
(CNN) -- After their son was killed in battle in Afghanistan, Lori and Jeff Wilfahrt crisscrossed their home state of Minnesota. They spoke at churches, schools, book clubs. They spoke of Cpl. Andrew Wilfahrt's love of country and the Constitution.
They spoke, too, of grief. They are a mother and father who utterly miss their son, a soldier who was openly gay.
On Tuesday, November 6, the Wilfahrts entered their polling station in Rosemount to vote against a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as solely between a man and woman. Both parents wondered: Had their boy died protecting homophobes who would deny him rights back home?
In Frederick, Maryland, the Rev. Barbara Kershner Daniel had lived with guilt for nearly 25 years. A fellow preacher who was gay had asked her to officiate his wedding with his partner. She told him no.
"Why did I do that?" she has asked herself ever since.
Mark Ellis, the former GOP state chairman in Maine, knew where he stood on the issue of same-sex marriage. Yet he struggled with whether it would hurt him professionally to break from his party.
In the northern suburbs of Seattle, middle school band and orchestra teacher Michael Clark had always spoken of dignity and respect for all. He and his partner of 18 years sat together at their dining table to vote early this year.
Their ballots weren't just votes. They were an affirmation of their love.
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Army Capt. Erik Anthes mourns his former classmate, Spc. Patrick Miller, at the Florida National Cemetery near Bushnell.Capt. Erik Anthes reserved it for a fellow soldier, a man he hadn't seen since high school back in New Port Richey, but promised he would never forget.
Parents of slain soldier 'don't feel he died in vain'
By ORLAN LOVE
CASCADE — The parents of fallen soldier Michael Ristau said Friday that freedom is not free and they accept the cost.
“We don’t feel he died in vain. We have it very good here because of people like him,” the soldier’s father, Randy Ristau, said during a news conference at City Hall.
It helps knowing “he died doing something he loved very much,” his mother, Suzanne Ristau, said.
Army Sgt. Ristau, 25, was killed July 13 in Afghanistan’s Qalat Zabul province when a roadside bomb impacted the vehicle in which he was riding, the Department of Defense said.
Suzanne Ristau said her family had been notified that two other soldiers were injured in the blast, one seriously.
She said her son got to spend only two weeks with his infant son, Hyle, before deploying in late December to Afghanistan with his unit, Company B, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team.
Ristau, who joined the Army in July 2004, shortly after he graduated from Lincoln’s Challenge Academy in Rantoul, Ill., had served with the same unit in Iraq in 2006 and 2007.
The family is putting together a video with photographs of Michael Ristau to help his young son understand more about his father, she said. He is also survived by his wife Elizabeth of Tacoma, Wash., and another son, Bradley, 5, from an earlier marriage.
The Ristaus, who traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for the solemn and dignified transfer of their son’s remains, said they were grateful for the outpouring of support from family, friends, neighbors and total strangers.
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Spc. Erica Alecksen, 21, of Eatonton, Ga.Pfc. Cameron Stambaugh, 20, of York, Pa.Spc. Clarence Williams III, 23, of Brooksville, Fla.Pfc. A.J. Pardo, 21, of Porterville, Calif.Staff Sgt. Ricardo Seija, 31, Tampa Bay, Fla.Pfc. Trevor Adkins, age and hometown unknown.read more here
