by Eric Resnick
Beavercreek, Ohio--“People in the trenches [in the military] now were in high school when Ellen came out, watched Will and Grace, and had gay straight alliances in their schools,” says retired Air Force Col. Daniel Tepfer.
“My grandson, who is 11 and in junior high, the boot camp for life, sees different perspectives, more diverse than when we went to school,” Tepfer continues, “We now recognize and accept other people, including LGBT ones.”
Tepfer, 65, of Beavercreek near Dayton, is a national director of Parents Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. More recently, he has been an outspoken critic of the ban on openly lesbian and gay military service members known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
In an op-ed piece in the Dayton Daily News on May 1, Tepfer pointed out that the military has increased the number of “moral waivers”--special exemptions allowing some people with criminal records to be recruited--while continuing to fire gays and lesbians.
“Since the policy was enacted in 1993, more than 12,000 service members have been dismissed for being gay. We can’t know how many gay men and women served in secret or how many desired to volunteer but didn’t because of the military’s rule,” Tepfer wrote.
“My 23 years of active-duty service were before ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and before I knew I had a gay child. I confess I gave little thought to whether gay people were serving in the military with me or whether they should be allowed to serve.
“Having a gay child opened my mind and heart to issues I hadn’t considered, and military service was one,” wrote Tepfer.
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