Margaret Hartmann at NYMag‘s Daily Intel:
… Today Rep. Barney Frank, who sits on the party’s drafting committee, told the Washington Blade that a platform including a gay marriage plank had been unanimously approved by a 15-member panel at a weekend hearing in Minneapolis. An anonymous Democratic National Committee staffer said that the current version includes a rejection of Defense of Marriage Act and positive language on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The platform is still in the draft stage, and may change before it’s presented in September….
The move marks the first time a major party has come out in favor of same-sex marriage, and is certainly significant step toward bringing gay rights into the mainstream. However, it’s possible that like President Obama’s announcement, this will be more of a symbolic victory. Democrats are hoping that once again, announcing their general support for gay marriage will give the party both a morale and a fund-raising boost. There’s no word on whether the final version might include support for a federal law to allow gay marriage, but since President Obama has yet to come out in favor of such a measure, it seems unlikely.
Sausage-making details, from the NYTimes:
… Democratic Party officials had squabbled over the issue in the past. But at a platform-drafting meeting over the weekend in Minneapolis, they approved the first step to amend their platform, placing the amendment on track for adoption. In two weeks, the entire platform committee will vote at a meeting scheduled in Detroit. Then, if approved as expected, it would go before convention delegates in Charlotte, N.C., for final passage in early September.
According to Democrats who were briefed on the vote in Minneapolis, there was no objection when the issue came up. Though the language that was voted on could still be revised, party officials do not anticipate any major obstacles going forward.
What a lovely wedding gift from the party to Rep. Frank (she said in her best Miss Manners voice). And what a contrast this should offer to the shenanigans at the Republican Convention, since I am quite sure the “family values activists” will be inspired to new depths of unhinged ugliness in response. Or as a commentor at Paul Constant’s Stranger blog noted: “The Dems have the plank… now they just need to make the Republicans walk it.”
Another Halocene Human
YAY!!!!!!!
I was so cynical, I thought they would evade again this year. GLAD TO KNOW I WAS WRONG.
Also, thank you OBAMA for having some guts and also good timing. Good on you.
I think we’ve already seen some chances just because of his example.
scav
Ditto the Huzzah!!!
And with Elizabeth Warren speaking before Bill Clinton, they definitely don’t seem to be heading for the weak tea style of operation.
The prophet Nostradumbass
I heard about this on the evening news here today, pretty cool.
Yutsano
Oh frabjous day indeed. And a huge leap forward from where we used to be even just four short years ago.
NotMax
@Yutsano
Yutsano, you still around? Seeking a little info or an opinion on tax arcana (not legal advice, and nothing related to my returns nor those of anyone I know; just general info).
maven
And after these Olympics I’m be right happy to see Liz Warren kicking some balls down the road……….
karen marie
The “commentor at Paul Constant’s Stranger blog” wins the internets for the rest of the summer.
Jewish Steel
Big Tent.
Your move, GOP.
karen marie
@Another Halocene Human: Yeah, I couldn’t see how they could avoid it. Things have indeed gotten to that point. I think if they tried to push it off another four years, Obama would have a much harder time winning reelection. Too many people know a gay person. People want to see some balls, and I’m glad to see the Democrats ready to finally teabag the Republicans.
It’s a shame that women are taking such a hit the last several years but two steps forward for every step back is progress.
Bruce S
A triumph for persistent “Make me do it!” grass-roots social activism.
Todd
@karen marie:
Which is why North Carolina constitutionally banned gay marriage by a 20 point margin just this spring.
This will make it more difficult to deliver states like NC to Obama, but it keeps monied white gay men happy for that fraction of a fraction of their number that all too often appear to be eager to embrace a dwindling social institution in order to “show” all the haters in their family that they can do what they want. It also has the added electoral bonus of conferring to monied white men the benefit of more tax cuts and fewer regulations on business in a potential GOP administration, not to mention strengthening the position of all the gay white guys working in wingnut congressional offices and glibertarian think tanks.
Bravo, Barney – way to screw things up. If this comes out as I’m guessing, I hope you like the healthcare and pensions I’ll be paying for while I get my vouchercare coupons for 5% off on emergency services (discount to apply solely to use during non-peak periods). You’ll make out just fine…
NotMax
OT–
And there is the lordly sense of disdain, remove and entitlement in the raw:
AnneW
@NotMax:
??? Link now says
Randy P
I think I just saw a textbook example of concern trolling in the wild (spotting it is left as an exercise to the reader). A few years ago I would have been concerned about how we’d lost this part of “our” party. Now I just say “sure you voted Obama. Yes, I completely believe that.”
BTW, CT, it doesn’t say Frank wrote it.
Valdivia
@AnneW:
what a fucking idiot. Venezuela was one of the only stable democracies in Latin America for always! So this line that they had made advances and lost them fucking pisses me off like they were the Soviet Union coming out of an authoritarian regime.
aimai
I hang out on a bulletin board devoted to family problems. One of the most typical problems is that young dating or married couples just don’t share their parent’s homophobia–whether the parents are Mormon, Catholic, or Evangelical. Interestingly enough a very large number of older Catholic women (mothers or mothers in law) are described as not having cared about the gay issue at all until a few years ago, at which point it really became a flashpoint for them. But its really clear that there has been a huge sea change in the way younger women and men (like, younger than 30) think about “the gay.” Not only is it true that “everyone knows someone who is gay” but they live in a wolrd where there is a whole lot of choice about association and religion and they don’t understand the exclusive attitude of their family. People routinely take the “its not your problem, why are you ranting about this” attitude. Its not so much that people are really pro-gay marrige as that they just can’ts ee what the fucking fuss is about and the anti-gay atitudes of their older family members is just another example of the dead hand of crazy people, as far as they can see.
aimai
NotMax
@AnneW
Here’s a di8fferent link, one that should not auto-update.
amk
@NotMax:
Apparently it was gopolitico’s supreme rethug shill jonathan martin who was asked to ‘shove it’
Only yesterday, this mitt a$$ kissing hack with zero self-respect had a 24 point headline trumpeting how walesa was ‘in solidarity’ with mittbot (while the original solidarity said FU to both of them).
Ah, Karma.
NotMax
@amk
Oh, the whole group is rattled, all right, that things are spiraling off-script.
According to CNN, it took a full half-hour for Gorka to apologize (to be talked down off his high horse?).
(italics in original)
NotMax
Dang it, wrong link. This is the CNN link.
gene108
@amk:
The high point of Mitt’s Poland tour is meeting with an old union thug?
Walesa rammed unions down communist Poland’s throat, when they were illegal earlier.
That’s the high point of his trip?
The cognitive dissonance, it burns.
gene108
@amk:
The high point of Mitt’s Poland tour is meeting with an old union thug?
Walesa rammed unions down communist Poland’s throat, when they were illegal earlier.
That’s the high point of his trip?
The cognitive dissonance, it burns.
gene108
@amk:
The highlight of Mitt’s Poland tour is his meeting with Walesa, a union thug?
The cognitive dissonance, it burns.
SP
The Log Cabin Republicans could not be reached for comment, but were later observed chanting “It just doesn’t matter!” while tightening their cilices.
ericblair
So the tire swing playdate’s been cancelled, or what? Entitled assholes of the political press meet the even more entitled assholes of the Romney campaign: hilarity ensues. Jeez, toss some smoked salmon and decent single malt at the ink-stained wretches and they’re yours, but no, gotta be an asshole.
What’s with Walesa, anyways? Some flap with the Obama administration, or what?
arguingwithsignposts
@Randy P:
It’s an everyday occurrence around here.
amk
@ericblair: Once he got elected prezinent, he turned rw and got the rich man’s taste. Even Solidarity movement doesn’t think of him much now.
NotMax
@ericblair
See here.
ericblair
@NotMax:
Ah. Abortion crank, much better at tearing down the shithouse than installing new plumbing. Gotcha.
Gretchen
@aimai:
Which direction do you see the older Catholic women going? Dan Savage’s mom has gone full rainbow. I’m an older, formerly Catholic woman. I left the church about 15 years ago when they decided abortion was the only moral issue worth talking about. The pedophile priests were mostly still undercover – turned out we had two at our church. My niece is marrying her girlfriend in Massachusetts next June, and her mom, also an older Catholic woman, refuses to discuss the matter. I plan to shame her into going, but am not sure I’ll be successful. It was always obvioius my niece was different. My husband predicted she’d grow up to be gay when she was 4. I told him not to be mean, but he was right. She fought it hard, and was a mess – failed in school, did drugs, worked minimum wage jobs – and then she met her girlfriend, and became another person. She’s confident, doing well in school, has plans for the future, is president of a student organization, plays rugby – she’s just doing great. And her mom is ignoring the whole thing because she didn’t turn out the way she planned. Her two sisters are still super-Catholic and say it’s against their religion to go to her wedding. She went to their big blow-out weddings, and wore hated “girl clothes” to please them, but they won’t make the same effort for her. Sometimes I think religion does more harm than good.