House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) supports the 2012 Democratic Party platform including, for the first time, language in full support of marriage equality, her spokesman told Metro Weekly on Tuesday evening, Feb. 14.
The former House speaker’s support for the move comes in response to Freedom to Marry’s announcement on Feb. 13 that it was launching a campaign to ask the Democrats, as the group put it, to “Say I Do” to including such a marriage equality plank in the party’s platform.
The platform, a detailed statement of the party’s positions that will be finalized at the Democratic National Convention this September, has never included language in support of the right of same-sex couples to marry. And the leader of the party, President Obama, opposed marriage equality in the 2008 campaign. He said in December 2010 that his position on marriage equality was “evolving” but that he still “struggle[s]” with it. His press secretary, Jay Carney, said this past week of Obama’s position, “You know his position, where it stands now, on the issue of same-sex marriage, so I really don’t have much to add on that.”
Freedom to Marry’s proposed platform plank would aggressively support marriage equality. The Human Rights Campaign, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and National Stonewall Democrats all support the inclusion of a marriage equality plank, with leaders of NGLTF and Stonewall Democrats endorsing the specific Freedom to Marry language.
The proposed plank states: “We support the full inclusion of all families in the life of our nation, with equal respect, responsibilities, and protections under the law, including the freedom to marry. Government has no business putting barriers in the path of people seeking to care for their family members, particularly in challenging economic times. We support the Respect for Marriage Act and the overturning of the federal so-called Defense of Marriage Act, and oppose discriminatory constitutional amendments and other attempts to deny the freedom to marry to loving and committed same-sex couples.”
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill tells Metro Weekly, “Leader Pelosi supports this language.”
Obama currently supports much of the Freedom to Marry plank language — outside of the marriage equality language itself. He has endorsed the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal DOMA, and opposes “divisive and discriminatory efforts to deny rights and benefits to same-sex couples.” After several requests by Metro Weekly, however, the Obama campaign is yet to provide specific comment on the proposed platform language.
Freedom to Marry president Evan Wolfson was happy to have Pelosi backing the proposed language.
“Freedom to Marry is proud to have Leader Pelosi joining our call to put the Democratic Party squarely on record in support of the freedom to marry as part of the national platform. A wide majority of Democrats and Independents support the freedom to marry, and standing up for all families is not just the right thing to do, it’s the right to do politically,” Wolfson writes to Metro Weekly. “I hope more people will quickly join Leader Pelosi by signing Freedom to Marry’s ‘Democrats: Say I Do’ petition so together we can get the party, and the country, where the majority of Americans already are.”
Among other prominent Democratic supporters of marriage equality is Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who Obama chose in 2011 to serve as the chair of the Democratic National Committee.
The change to the Democratic Party platform would be a significant advancement for marriage equality advocates.
In 2008, the platform stated that the party “oppose[d] the Defense of Marriage Act and that it “supported … equal responsibilities, benefits and protections.” It took no position on marriage equality. In 2004, the platform opposed the Federal Marriage Amendment backed by then-President George W. Bush but, as to marriage equality, stated that “marriage has been defined at the state level for 200 years, and we believe it should continue to be defined there.”
The Republican Party platform, by comparison, stated in 2008: “Because our children’s future is best preserved within the traditional understanding of marriage, we call for a constitutional amendment that fully protects marriage as a union of a man and a woman, so that judges cannot make other arrangements equivalent to it. In the absence of a national amendment, we support the right of the people of the various states to affirm traditional marriage through state initiatives.” It also stated that DOMA was enacted by a Republican Congress and called Democratic efforts to repeal DOMA “unbelievabl[e].”
Of the three candidates seeking the Republican nomination to have won any of the primary contests — former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) — all oppose marriage equality and support a Federal Marriage Amendment to make marriages between same-sex couples unconstitutional. Such an amendment failed to secure even 50 of the necessary 60 votes for cloture when it was voted on in 2006. The measure would need a two-thirds vote approving the amendment itself from both chambers before being sent to the states for ratification.
"I was really into politics at a very young age," says Tim Miller, host of The Bulwark Podcast and an MSNBC political analyst. "I can't remember what they were called, but you'd get those kid magazines about politics that would come to your school, and I remember always really being drawn to them, and reading them and wanting to know more. I always knew lots of weird facts about politics and geography as a little middle school nerd."
Raised in St. Louis until fourth grade, when his family relocated to Littleton, Colorado, Miller became enmeshed in conservative politics at a young age, taking various campaign jobs throughout his career as a former Republican strategist. He jokes that his success at handicapping political races dates back to the 1992 election, when he won a $1 wager after betting his grandmother that then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton would unseat sitting president George H.W. Bush.
The former Kentucky clerk -- and anti-LGBTQ culture warrior -- who went to jail rather than issue licenses to same-sex couples is now targeting the landmark 2015 ruling.
A decade after catapulting to right-wing stardom, Kim Davis -- the former Rowan County, Kentucky county clerk who chose jail over issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples -- has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its landmark 2015 decision that legalized marriage equality nationwide.
Represented by the anti-LGBTQ Liberty Counsel, Davis has formally asked the nationâs highest court to strip away the right of same-sex couples to marry.
A Mike Huckabee acolyte and four-time married fundamentalist zealot, Davis rose to fame in 2015 when she refused to issue marriage licenses to any couple -- gay or straight -- after the Supreme Courtâs Obergefell v. Hodges decision struck down all state-level bans on same-sex marriage, including Kentuckyâs. Ordered to comply, she instead spent six days in jail for contempt of court.
Third Way, a centrist think tank tied to the Democratic Party's pro-corporate shift of the 1990s, has issued a memo listing 45 "profoundly alienating" words it says Democrats should avoid.
Marketed as advice on how to "speak plainly," the list is framed as a way to keep moderates and swing voters from viewing the party as elitist or out of touch.
In its summary of its recommendations, Third Way argues Democrats have fallen into a trap of using activist-approved language to court advocacy groups.
"These activists and advocates may take on noble causes, but in doing so they often demand compliance with their preferred messages; that is how âbirthing person' became a stand-in for mother or mom," the memo states. The term was originally meant to acknowledge that some transgender men and nonbinary people can become pregnant.
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The former House speaker’s support for the move comes in response to Freedom to Marry’s announcement on Feb. 13 that it was launching a campaign to ask the Democrats, as the group put it, to “Say I Do” to including such a marriage equality plank in the party’s platform.
