Democratic Party's 2012 national platform to include same sex marriage

The Democratic Party platform drafting committee has unanimously approved language endorsing marriage equality as part of the party's official 2012 platform. According to LGBT newspaper The Washington Blade, two sources close to the drafting process have come forward and stated that same sex marriage will be a plank in the platform, which will be ratified at the Democratic National Convention in September.

The Blade quotes retiring Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) as saying, "I was part of a unanimous decision to include it. There was a unanimous decision in the drafting committee to include it in the platform, which I supported, but everybody was for it.”

The 15-member panel has heard testimony from witnesses backing the inclusion, including Andy Solomon, national campaign director of Freedom to Marry, Army Chief Warrant Officer Charlie Morgan, a lesbian New Hampshire guardsman with stage-four incurable breast cancer and a plaintiff in Servicemembers Legal Defense Network’s lawsuit against the Defense of Marriage Act, Michael Macleod-Ball, the American Civil Liberties Union’s chief of staff for the Washington Legislative Office and others.

Every four years, a drafting committee made up of party officials comes together to write the party's official platform, which is currently still in its draft phase. The group will meet again in Detroit in August to hear a "close-to-final" draft and suggest amendments before presenting the document at the Democratic National Convention.

Party chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz told the Philadelphia Gay News last week that she expected same sex marriage to be a plank in the party platform. “I expect marriage equality to be a plank in the party platform,” she said. “President Obama has expressed his support for it.”

According to the Blade, an anonymous staffer reported that the "language in the platform approved on Sunday not only backs marriage equality, but also rejects DOMA and has positive language with regard to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act."

The Democratic National Convention takes place September 3 to 6 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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