Herland Sister Resources

The 2008 Democratic Party platform draft to be submitted to the delegates at the Democratic National Convention later this month is the most pro-glbt ever.  The official platform has yet to be released to the public, but the wording that was adopted marks historic firsts and advocates:

Repealing the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA),
A national HIV/AIDS strategy
Repealing the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy
Passing hate-crimes legislation
Passing comprehensive employment nondiscrimination legislation
Redefining family to include same-sex couples
Pledging to fight discrimination based on gender identity

Some of the highlights from the platform draft are as follows:
The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.

Ending violence against women must be a top priority. We will create a special advisor to the president regarding violence against women. We will increase funding to domestic violence and sexual assault  prevention programs. We will strengthen sexual assault and domestic violence laws, support the Violence Against Women Act, and provide job security to survivors. Our foreign policy will be sensitive to issues of aggression against women around the world.

Democrats will fight to end discrimination based on race, sex, ethnicity, national origin, language, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age and disability in every corner of our country.

We are committed to ensuring full equality for women: We reaffirm our support for the Equal Rights Amendment, recommit to enforcing Title IX, and will urge passage of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. We will pursue a unified foreign and domestic policy that promotes  civil rights and human rights, for women and minorities, at home and abroad. We will pass the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, because hate crimes desecrate sacred spaces and belittle all good people. We will restore and support the White House Initiative on Asian-American and Pacific Islanders, including enforcement on disaggregation of Census data. We will make the Census more culturally sensitive, including outreach and increased confidentiality protections to ensure accurate counting of the growing Latino population.

We support the full inclusion of all families in the life of our nation, and support equal responsibility, benefits, and protections. We will enact a comprehensive bipartisan employment non-discrimination act. We oppose the Defense of Marriage Act and all attempts to use this issue to divide us.

Rea Carey, the leader of the National Gay And Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) is pleased with the Democratic Party Platform: “The vision put forth in the 2008 Democratic National Platform is historic in its embrace of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. Never before in our country’s history has there been a national party platform that is so inclusive of our entire community. It is a forward-looking platform in so many areas, including those relating to LGBT people. The Task Force Action Fund is certainly pleased to see that in the opening paragraph of the section titled ‘A More Perfect Union,’ for the first time the platform explicitly calls for an end to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

See the full draft platform at http://noquarterusa.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/draft-2008-democratic-national-platform.pdf