Minnesota’s Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment
The moment that most won’t forget is when Rep. John Kriesel, R-Cottage Grove, rose late Saturday night to speak against the marriage amendment.
Kriesel, whose legs were badly mangled in Iraq, was described by Zellers at the beginning of this session as “a rock star” of the Republican freshman class. And now, here he was, speaking out passionately against a key Republican action.
“If this was five or six years ago,” Kriesel said as he began his talk, “I probably would have voted ‘yes’ without really thinking about it.”
Then, Kriesel told a silent House about suffering his wounds, laying in the dirt, legs mangled, thinking of his wife and kids and doubting that he’d ever see them again.
The thoughts of the people he loved, he said, made him fight for life.
“As bad as that day sucked,” he said, “it’s changed my life in good ways. What would I do without my wife?”
He talked of how it’s a hard world and “that happiness is so hard to find.” Why, he wondered, would legislators vote for something that would deny people who love each other the chance to marry?
“This amendment doesn’t represent what I went to fight for,” he said.
Before he spoke, Kriesel had made sure each legislator had received an 8 ½-by-11-inch copy of a photo of Army Spc. Andrew Wilfahrt in combat gear. The Minnesota man was killed in Afghanistan during the winter. He was gay.
Kriesel asked his colleagues to look at the picture and think about the young man’s death.
“Good enough to give his life for his country, but not good enough to marry the person he loved?” Kriesel asked.
John Kriesel is a hero in so many ways. Whenever I’m tempted to think all Republicans are idiots, I’m going to come back here and read about this brave man who spoke up for what’s right and just, even in the face of immense political pressure to do otherwise.
Posted by RebeccaHartong on May 24, 2011 under Civil Rights
Social tags: gay rights
This just shows that good legisiators are those who have expereinced something in life outside of their white bread worlds. Wish there were some way of making it criteria for holding office. “Let’s hear about your humbling experiences and the people who have inspired you.”
It is ironic that a work buddy of mine who retired this year just thought this guy was junk. Came from the same district in which he worked for Democrats. One of my FB folks ran against Kriesel for this seat and lost (Jen Peterson). A disabled Iraq Vet-pretty hard to beat.
I am having lunch with my ex work buddy tomorrow. Will have to see how he feels about the guy now.
We had lunch and he thinks the guy is great now that he has come to know what he is really like. He also said that he knows that Kreisel intends to caucus with the Democrats and not the Republicans next year.