Teresa made her famous "Mama Tee" speech to the GLBT Caucus.
Posted on 08/02/2004 4:24:06 AM PDT by Screaming_Gerbil
SUMMARY: The Democratic National Committee (DNC) claims this year's party platform is the most inclusive in American history on issues important to the GLBT community.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) claims this year's party platform is the most inclusive in American history on issues important to the GLBT community.
The DNC's Platform Committee finished the platform on Saturday. Among the issues included are:
Protections for GLBT families;
Legislation barring workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation;
Opening the armed services to all Americans;
Fighting HIV/AIDS with community-based prevention programs that President Bush has cut;
Protecting GLBT Americans from hate crimes; and,
Defeating the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), the proposed constitutional amendment aimed at outlawing same-sex marriage across the country.
DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe claimed the platform proves the Democratic Party and the presidential ticket of Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and John Edwards, D-N.C., are committed to protecting GLBT Americans.
The DNC also named Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., as convention vice chair, making her the first openly gay vice chair of a national political convention.
"Tammy has represented Wisconsin with dedication, leadership and integrity," McAuliffe said in a press release. "I know she will serve our party and our convention as whole-heartedly as she serves her constituents and her country."
However, the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) is not entirely happy with the weekend developments from the DNC.
With an unprecedented seven transgender delegates attending the Democratic Convention in Boston (July 26-29), NTAC hoped the DNC would incorporate specific language protecting the transgender community. NTAC said the transgender delegation lobbied the platform committee to add gender identity to the workplace nondiscrimination policy in the party platform, but negotiations hit an impasse.
"There was a real sense of Catch-22 -- no easy choice," said Vanessa Edwards Foster, NTAC chair, who was also elected one of the two delegates from Texas.
"We could've forced the issue onto the floor, lost the vote, and left the first impression that we are self-interested -- elections be damned," Foster said in a prepared statement. "Or we could sacrifice, negotiate something from this while waiting for the better political climate, and face our community's critics."
Dave Noble, the executive director of the Stonewall Democrats, said he wished the platform had more specific protections for the transgender community as well as stronger wording in favor of same-sex marriage. "But the issue on the table is the Federal Marriage Amendment, and I'm glad the platform committee has strong language opposing it," he said.
"The Democrats have a long history of going for the GLBT vote, especially when you compare them to the Republican Party -- there is no comparison," Noble added.
GLBT Ping
First up - extending the FMLA to homosexuals. Furthers the newly constructed concept that these are "families."
I'm sure that most of you know this by now but, if you go to Kerry's website and click on the GLBT link, you'll find the American Flag is half Old Glory and half the gay flag. Despicable!! I e-mailed it to almost everyone in my e-mail address book. Those who were undecided are no longer undecided.
Now, if we can get this message out, it would be worth 2 or 3 percentage points. This is an issue that even the black community can get worked up over.
If Bush can just say that Kerry supports gay marriage on TV ads in the South, he'll sweep the South easily... Arkansas and Missouri and WV in landslides. Southern Democrats are old-school pro-union and pro-family Democrats, and they'll die before they knowingly vote for any gay "rights".
Thanks for the alert - I have currently handed the torch of the Homosexual Agenda Pinglist to ItsOurTimeNow (my computer is about to die) so I know he would appreciate alerts to relevant articles.
They're fast and furious these days.
Here's one for the list.
I'm bringing my computer in this week - hope to be back on FR soon. I'm afraid the thing's going to explode.... I can only turn it on for about 5 minutes.
>:-(
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