DNC platform drafting committee unanimously approves marriage equality plank

[Lief]

http://www.washingtonblade.com/2012/07/30/democratic-platform-draft-includes-marriage-equality-plank-sources/

The Democratic Party platform drafting committee approved on Sunday language endorsing same-sex marriage in addition to other pro-LGBT positions as part of the Democratic Party platform, according to two sources familiar with the drafting process.

Retiring gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who sits on the committee, told the Washington Blade on Monday that the 15-member panel unanimously backed the inclusion of a marriage equality plank after a national hearing over the weekend in Minneapolis, in which several witnesses testified in favor of such language.

“I was part of a unanimous decision to include it,” Frank said. “There was a unanimous decision in the drafting committee to include it in the platform, which I supported, but everybody was for it.”

Frank emphasized that support for marriage equality is a position that has been established for the Democratic Party, from the president, who endorsed marriage equality in May, to House Democratic lawmakers who voted to reject an amendment reaffirming the Defense of Marriage Act earlier this month.

A Democratic National Committee staffer, who is familiar with the process and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the language in the platform approved on Sunday not only backs marriage equality, but also rejects DOMA and has positive language with regard to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The exact wording of the language wasn’t immediately available.

The platform is still in a draft phase. Writers of the platform are now set to come up with close-to-final draft that will be presented before the full platform committee in Detroit from Aug. 10 to Aug. 12. That committee will discuss amendments before presenting the platform at the convention in Charlotte in September.

[Comrade Shmoo]

Yay!

[Vosem]

If only the GOP would do it now...

[Simfan34]

Will the connection support it?

[stegosaurus]

Good on them.

[Governor Scott]

[MilesC56]

Another nudge at the conservative wing of the party...I'll just say I respectfully disagree with this.

[Gass3268]

It is days like these when i am proud to be a Democrat.

[ajc0918]

Considering many polls are now showing a majority of Americans are supporting marriage equality, it's about time. 

[MD]

That is interesting.  Polls always show that but when voted on they usually lose.   It will be interesting to see how this plays to middle America.  I am not taking a side.  Just interested to see what happens.

[ajc0918]

That is interesting.  Polls always show that but when voted on they usually lose.   It will be interesting to see how this plays to middle America.  I am not taking a side.  Just interested to see what happens.

I think this is the year that changes. Polling shows the marriage equality winning by decent points in both Maine and Washington. I haven't seen recent polling on Maryland or Minnesota though.

[Lieutenant Governor Clinton1996]

I neither disagree, nor agree with this. I dont really care. And I guearantee a large majority of Americans agree with me when I say marriage equality ranks way below the economy in their worries about party platforms.

[Big Wiggly Style]

If only the GOP would do it now...

Not gonna happen any time soon

[Grad Students are the Worst]

Another nudge at the conservative wing of the party...I'll just say I respectfully disagree with this.

Why is that?

[Is JCL in mushy sappy love]

It's a sad day for this once noble party. This wouldn't fly in the Democrat party of my grandma and other New Dealers. It wouldnt fly in the vein of my idealogical ancestry of the Bourben wing of the party led by Grover Cleveland. I'm also sure Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Andrew Jackson would flip out on the Democrats of today(they'd flip out of a few Republicans too but not on the Paul wing).

GOP: stand your ground regarding traditional marriage. You are on the right side of history and eternity.

[Comrade Shmoo]

It's a sad day for this once noble party. This wouldn't fly in the Democrat party of my grandma and other New Dealers. It wouldnt fly in the vein of my idealogical ancestry of the Bourben wing of the party led by Grover Cleveland. I'm also sure Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Andrew Jackson would flip out on the Democrats of today(they'd flip out of a few Republicans too but not on the Paul wing).

GOP: stand your ground regarding traditional marriage. You are on the right side of history and eternity.

Was George Wallace on the right side of history and eternity? Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Jackson would flip out on MLK.

[Nagas]

It's a sad day for this once noble party. This wouldn't fly in the Democrat party of my grandma and other New Dealers. It wouldnt fly in the vein of my idealogical ancestry of the Bourben wing of the party led by Grover Cleveland. I'm also sure Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Andrew Jackson would flip out on the Democrats of today(they'd flip out of a few Republicans too but not on the Paul wing).

GOP: stand your ground regarding traditional marriage. You are on the right side of history and eternity.

Quite the opposite. Human society has been moving away and dropping the false and disgusting Bronze age morals and beliefs for the past few centuries. Ending the notion that the Earth was the center of the universe? Check. Ending the myth that humanity is only 6,000 years old and created in their current form? Check. Ending slavery? Check. Ending the oppression of women? Check.

This is merely history marching. In fifty years the advocates of "traditional marriage" will be looked at with the same scorn as people look at George Wallace today.

[Old Europe]

^^

LOL

[Holmes]

oh my god shut up shut up shut up shut up about how people who were alive 100+ years ago would react to modern day issues and how they would be so "conservative" on them.

Another nudge at the conservative wing of the party...I'll just say I respectfully disagree with this.

You should be aware that this post is pretty disrespectful to actual LGBT members of the Democratic party and citizens of the US, how you care more about saving like two or so congressmen from North Carolina than equality for a chunk of citizens of the country, but whatevski.

[Governor Scott]

It's a sad day for this once noble party. This wouldn't fly in the Democrat party of my grandma and other New Dealers. It wouldnt fly in the vein of my idealogical ancestry of the Bourben wing of the party led by Grover Cleveland. I'm also sure Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Andrew Jackson would flip out on the Democrats of today(they'd flip out of a few Republicans too but not on the Paul wing).

GOP: stand your ground regarding traditional marriage. You are on the right side of history and eternity.

Truth be told, there were many Democrats of those days that have been attributed to the darker history of the party.  I'm sure you weren't considering the Klan enablers when you wrote that message, but there are many Democrats that today's party wouldn't affiliate itself with unless they were to renounce their past actions.  Besides, gay marriage wasn't an issue back when any of those guys you mentioned were around, and Ron Paul wasn't even alive at the time.  Way to namedrop.

The truth is, the country you are living in is going to be very different thirty or forty years from now, especially on this particular issue.  The voices of certain naysayers will persist, but as nothing more than imperceptible white noise.

It's time to evolve.

[MilesC56]

Another nudge at the conservative wing of the party...I'll just say I respectfully disagree with this.

Why is that?

Because I believe "marriage" should be between a man and a woman; a considerable portion of our party agrees with me on that and they are being alienated with this choice.

Speaking of which...

oh my god shut up shut up shut up shut up about how people who were alive 100+ years ago would react to modern day issues and how they would be so "conservative" on them.

Another nudge at the conservative wing of the party...I'll just say I respectfully disagree with this.

You should be aware that this post is pretty disrespectful to actual LGBT members of the Democratic party and citizens of the US, how you care more about saving like two or so congressmen from North Carolina than equality for a chunk of citizens of the country, but whatevski.

I'm trying to be respectful. I simply stated my opinion in response to Alcon's post. I'm against gay marriage but I support other forms of recognition for homosexual couples; that's why I voted against NC Amendment 1.

Yes, it would be nice to see a few of the conservative Democrats, who share my views on this, win.

[Sibboleth]

Human society has been moving away and dropping the false and disgusting Bronze age morals and beliefs for the past few centuries.

Considering how the twentieth century turned out, don't you think it might be better to find a better argument than that?

[Nagas]

Human society has been moving away and dropping the false and disgusting Bronze age morals and beliefs for the past few centuries.

Considering how the twentieth century turned out, don't you think it might be better to find a better argument than that?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're referring to the carnage of war, correct? Unfortunately, progress has been slow in some areas and better in others. :/

My point is that the Church or deeply religious types have been stalwart defenders of anachronistic beliefs, in the realms of both science and morality.  Religion has been giving up ground more or less for awhile now and the trend is not stopping. Gay rights and gay marriage is simply the next step in the evolution of our civilization's morality.

[asexual trans victimologist]

Human society has been moving away and dropping the false and disgusting Bronze age morals and beliefs for the past few centuries.

Considering how the twentieth century turned out, don't you think it might be better to find a better argument than that?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're referring to the carnage of war, correct? Unfortunately, progress has been slow in some areas and better in others. :/

My point is that the Church or deeply religious types have been stalwart defenders of anachronistic beliefs, in the realms of both science and morality.  Religion has been giving up ground more or less for awhile now and the trend is not stopping. Gay rights and gay marriage is simply the next step in the evolution of our civilization's morality.

I'm not sure the history of ideas actually works that way. I think it works kind of differently.

[oakvale]

This will likely mean Obama loses the Gilded Age peasant demographic.