Posted on 09/04/2012 2:08:12 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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."
Yeh ‘historic’ blah blah. As if everything historic was so good. Sodom and Gomorrah were historic too. All this gay perverted carpola is ultimately headed for a fiery end
Obummer will get his clock cleaned in NC. He loses this state big time. That he came out one day after voters ruled against queer marriage and said he was all for it, was a slap in the face to the voters of the state. This incompetent, pandering dunce will lose any state that he is either tied in or barely leading. Everyone knows what they get with this worthless piece of cow manure. And that is absolutely nothing but four more years of socialist politicians and this muslim trying his damnest to destroy Christianity. He makes Jimmy Carter look like Thomas Jefferson. No fan of Romney here, but he is 1000 times an improvement over this paper-hanging, teleprompter-reading dunce.
Appeasing the coprophiliacs that seem to be leading the rat party is just another day for this collection of perverts.
“Consenting adults can do what they want in private”
No, they can’t, not when it threatens the public health. Male homos are the #1 vector for the spread of infectious diseases. This cannot go unchecked.
Jusst daymuuuuuuuuuuuuum. I knew that guy for years in the military and knew there was something wrong with him.
Only if it is a secret ballot will it fail to pass. Opposing it publicly would expose the antis to attack, physical and othwerwise.
But, so far as I can see, he has not tried to force it on anyone else. RATs can't live with differences of opinion; I can, so long as they are not forced down my throat.
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