Democratic Platform To Include Equal Marriage Rights Plank

In past years the Democratic Party has been afraid to include a plank in their platform calling for equal rights in marriage (allowing gays and lesbians to legally marry). There was some doubt as to where the country stood on the matter, and blue dogs were able to convince the party that such a plank could hurt them in certain conservative areas. While they didn't oppose equal marriage rights (like the Republicans do), they couldn't sum up the courage to do the right thing. As someone who believes our politicians should be leaders instead of poll watchers and followers, I always hated their reticence on this issue (considering that our Constitution is clear that rights should be equally distributed to all citizens).

Fortunately our country is changing. Now more people support equal marriage rights than oppose it. As the chart above (from the Pew Research Center) shows, each generation has been more supportive of equal rights than the preceding generation, with the last two generations showing majority support for this issue. And the Democratic Party is also changing. Back in 2004, only about 40% of Democrats supported equal marriage rights. In 2008, that figure had climbed to about 50%. But this year about 65% (or nearly two-thirds) of Democrats are on board with equal marriage rights (83% of progressives and 54% of blue dogs).

And with a majority of Independents also supporting equal marriage rights, it looks like the Democratic Party has finally found the political courage to start leading on this important issue. Back in early May, President Obama threw down the gauntlet by publicly stating his support for equal marriage rights. Just a month later, the Democratic Party in the very red state of Texas took up the challenge and put an equal marriage rights plank in their state party platform. Now it looks like the national party is going to do the same.

According to Rep. Barney Frank, a member of the national party's platform committee, the 15 member committee writing the party's platform (which will need to be approved by delegates to the convention) has included an equal marriage rights plank in that platform -- and the vote to include that plank in the platform was by unanimous vote. And there is no reason to believe this won't be ratified by the delegates.

The Republican Party may still be opposed to giving equal rights to all Americans, but the Democratic Party is not. With this action, they have declared they support the Constitution and its guarantee of equal rights for ALL Americans.