Platform vote on same-sex marriage at Democratic convention called historic

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For gay and lesbian delegates to the Democratic National Convention, this week's gathering offers a momentous opportunity to vote, for the first time in history, on a party platform that calls for legalizing same-sex marriage.

"This is historic," said Rich Bailey of Austin, a gay man who has been politically active for 26 years. "It's my first national convention, and I'm really excited I get to go to this one, especially one where we have an opportunity to vote on this plank."

Delegates Sue Spell and Carol Cappa from Fort Worth, together for 11 years, have discussed getting married in another state. For them, the platform vote is more personal than is typical for a statement of party principles and values.

"It's an opportunity to validate our relationship and to be able to marry the person I love," Cappa said.

Portrayed as politically risky when President Barack Obama shifted position in May to embrace the concept, same-sex marriage has become increasingly accepted in the United States, with opinion polls showing about half of Americans in support. But with the same polls finding an almost equal number of opponents, same-sex marriage remains a divisive issue heading toward a November election considered by both sides to be close.

Rick Cofer of Austin, a member of the Democratic National Committee who is straight, sees no risk in the gay-marriage plank.

"Doing the right thing when the right thing is obvious is never risky," he said. "My father was born in a segregated country, and Lyndon Johnson did something about it. I was born in a country where gay Americans did not have equality, and this president will do something about it."

Bailey said growing acceptance of same-sex marriage — favored by only 27 percent in a 1996 Gallup Poll, compared with 50 percent in May — limits the political risk as the Democratic convention gets under way late this afternoon.

"I think it's an accurate reading of where this country is going to be," he said. "And it just makes sense for us to be on the right side of history."

Still, polls indicate Obama took a political hit after announcing that his position on same-sex marriage had evolved. Obama's shift left only 13 percent of Americans more likely to vote for him, compared with 26 percent less likely to support the president — including 10 percent of Democrats, according to a Gallup Poll in May.

At its state convention in June, the Texas Democratic Party became the first in a Southern state to approve a platform backing same-sex marriage, said Eli Olivarez, president of Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus. "Texas may be conservative for Republicans, but for Democrats, it's inclusive," he said.

Three months later, he said, 534 of the nearly 6,000 delegates at the national convention are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, about double the number from 2008.

At the Republican National Convention last week in Florida, delegates approved a platform reaffirming support for a U.S. constitutional amendment that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman and supporting similar efforts at the state level.

One of those states was North Carolina, where voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in May, four months before the Democratic convention's arrival.

"It is kind of discouraging that there are still states, communities and political parties saying we don't think everyone in this country is entitled to equal protection," Bailey said. "I'm hoping that having this in Charlotte, they will be able to see what having full equality looks like."

The proposed Democratic platform also calls for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which allows states to not recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

The marriage planks were approved with little discussion, and no dissent, when the DNC Platform Committee met last month in Detroit, said Ally O'Connell of Austin, a national delegate and platform committee member.

"It's almost silly that we have to fight for marriage equality. It seems we should be moving past this now," said O'Connell, who is straight. "Since there are so many people fighting against it, it is very important to me to be fighting for it."

Excerpts Republican Party 2012 Platform - PDF

The First Amendment: The Foresight of Our Founders to Protect Religious Freedom

The first provision of the First Amendment concerns freedom of religion. That guarantee reflected Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which declared that no one should “suffer on account of his religious opinion or belief, but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion….” That assurance has never been more needed than it is today, as liberal elites try to drive religious beliefs—and religious believers—out of the public square. The Founders of the American Republic universally agree that democracy presupposes a moral people and that, in the words of George Washington’s Farewell Address, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”

The most offensive instance of this war on religion has been the current Administration’s attempt to compel faith-related institutions, as well as believing individuals, to contravene their deeply held religious, moral, or ethical beliefs regarding health services, traditional marriage, or abortion. This forcible secularization of religious and religiously affiliated organizations, including faith-based hospitals and colleges, has been in tandem with the current Administration’s audacity in declaring which faithrelated activities are, or are not, protected by the First Amendment—an unprecedented aggression repudiated by a unanimous Supreme Court in its Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC decision.

We pledge to respect the religious beliefs and rights of conscience of all Americans and to safeguard the independence of their institutions from government. We support the public display of the Ten Commandments as a reflection of our history and of our country’s Judeo-Christian heritage, and we affirm the right of students to engage in prayer at public school events in public schools and to have equal access to public schools and other public facilities to accommodate religious freedom in the public square. We assert every citizen’s right to apply religious values to public policy and the right of faith-based organizations to participate fully in public programs without renouncing their beliefs, removing religious symbols, or submitting to government-imposed hiring practices. We oppose government discrimination against businesses due to religious views. We support the First Amendment right of freedom of association of the Boy Scouts of America and other service organizations whose values are under assault and condemn the State blacklisting of religious groups which decline to arrange adoptions by same-sex couples. We condemn the hate campaigns, threats of violence, and vandalism by proponents of same-sex marriage against advocates of traditional marriage and call for a federal investigation into attempts to deny religious believers their civil rights.

..The Sanctity and Dignity of Human Life

Faithful to the “self-evident” truths enshrined in the declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children. We oppose using public revenues to promote or perform abortion or fund organizations which perform or advocate it and will not fund or subsidize health care which includes abortion coverage. We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life. We oppose the nonconsensual withholding or withdrawal of care or treatment, including food and water, from people with disabilities, including newborns, as well as the elderly and infirm, just as we oppose active and passive euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Republican leadership has led the effort to prohibit the barbaric practice of partial-birth abortion and permitted States to extend health care coverage to children before birth. We urge Congress to strengthen the Born Alive Infant Protection Act by enacting appropriate civil and criminal penalties on healthcare providers who fail to provide treatment and care to an infant who survives an abortion, including early induction delivery where the death of the infant is intended. We call for legislation to ban sex-selective abortions – gender discrimination in its most lethal form—and to protect from abortion unborn children who are capable of feeling pain; and we applaud U.S. House Republicans for leading the effort to protect the lives of pain-capable unborn children in the District of Columbia. We call for a ban on the use of body parts from aborted fetuses for research. We support and applaud adult stem cell research to develop lifesaving therapies, and we oppose the killing of embryos for their stem cells. We oppose federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

We also salute the many States that have passed laws for informed consent, mandatory waiting periods prior to an abortion, and health-protective clinic regulation. We seek to protect young girls from exploitation through a parental consent requirement; and we affirm our moral obligation to assist, rather than penalize, women challenged by an unplanned pregnancy. We salute those who provide them with counseling and adoption alternatives and empower them to choose life, and we take comfort in the tremendous increase in adoptions that has followed Republican legislative initiatives. [end excerpts Republican Party 2012 Platform]

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