Bay Windows - July 29, 2004
Laura Kiritsy, lkiritsy@baywindows.com.

The 2004 convention hosted 255 openly GLBT delegates representing 48 states and three territories - including seven transgender people - up from 212 at the 2000 convention, where there was only one transgender delegate.

Those delegates were serious about electing the John Kerry-John Edwards presidential ticket on November 2. But that's not to say they were 100 percent satisfied with the ticket, the party platform or the convention's tightly controlled message.

Same-sex marriage has proven to be a major sticking point. Discord on the issue surfaced at a standing-room-only GLBT delegate caucus at the Sheraton Hotel on day one of the convention that was attended by a handful of openly gay Kerry-Edwards campaign staffers and Democratic National Committee leaders. Some delegates were resentful that they would not be able to hoist signs in support of same-sex marriage on the convention floor. Both Kerry and Edwards oppose same-sex marriage but support civil unions.

Delegates also raised questions about the Democratic Party Platform. The document expresses support for a number of gay rights issues - including AIDS/HIV funding, passage of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) and allowing "all patriotic Americans" to serve in the military "without discrimination, persecution and violence." However, efforts to make the language more inclusive of the transgender community failed. The platform also strongly opposes the Federal Marriage Amendment, but some felt its statement of support for "full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation" and the provision of "equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for those families" did not go far enough toward supporting same-sex marriage.

Roberta Achtenberg, an openly gay member of the Democratic Platform Committee and former Clinton White House staffer, acknowledged the platforms shortcomings.

"I understand that we could not be everything to everyone, as mightily as we might have tried," Achtenberg told the caucus meeting. "But I want to underscore that we did commit ourselves in this party platform, as we have in various versions of our party's platforms since 1980, our community has been recognized respectfully and honored," she said, citing the platform's commitments to fighting AIDS, hate crimes, employment discrimination, the ban on gays in the military and the Federal Marriage Amendment and its support for equal legal protections for gay and lesbian families.

"I know we didn't do enough but we tried the best that we could to represent the diversity of opinion in our community," said Achtenberg. "The campaign welcomed our input, there was vigorous debate as many of my colleagues will attest. We pushed and pulled, and as I said, while we didn't get everything that we would have sought we believe that we made a very vigorous effort and we believe that they made a good-faith response to our importuning."

In an interview following the meeting, Achtenberg stated that the platform committee did not attempt to put support for same-sex marriage into the platform. "The issue of marriage per se - many people have differing views on the specifics of marriage," she explained. "Our task I think was to seek affirmation for the equality of our families, and we got that affirmation in the party platform. Beyond that it's not the role of a nationwide consensus-based document to go farther than that. That's not the national consensus about that."

Mary Breslauer, a Massachusetts delegate and platform committee member, added that the goal was to create a document that Democratic candidates nationwide could embrace. "And I think when that's a goal that you're not only talking about your top of the ticket, but you're looking at a platform that people across the ticket and across the country can feel confident about running on. That was a big part of the goal in the final document."

Stumping for Kerry

Day one of the convention also saw three openly gay people at the dais on the convention floor at the Fleet Center: Achtenberg, U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin; a Kerry-Edwards campaign vice chair; and Democratic National Committee Treasurer Andrew Tobias. In her primetime speech on health care, Baldwin drew cheers from the audience when she declared Kerry's commitment to health care for all American families, "including domestic partners."

In his speech about economic issues earlier that day, Tobias spoke of how the lack of legal protections hinders even the most financially stable Americans, referencing remarks he made at the 2000 Democratic National Convention: "I asked, 'What good is net-worth without self-worth?' What good is having millions if you can't visit your partner in intensive care because - despite your life together - you are strangers in the eyes of the law? The Constitution defends all Americans, and there should be no exceptions.

"You know, Charles and I are celebrating our tenth anniversary next month," he added, "and we pay a lot of taxes and we should be able to share fully in the promise of America."

Taking the stage shortly before 6 p.m., Achtenberg prefaced her speech on the Democratic Party platform this way: "I, too, am a proud American. In addition to being a Senior Vice President of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, I am a lawyer, a mother, and a lesbian. I am proud to be all of those things and one thing more: a Democrat!"

Speeches directly addressing gay issues were reserved for Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, who was scheduled to take the stage to discuss the role of the National Stonewall Democrats, a gay organization he founded in 1995, on July 29. Human Rights Campaign (HRC) President Cheryl Jacques addressed the convention in the early evening of July 28.

In an interview with Bay Windows prior to her speech, Jacques said she has two important things to tell the American people about the GLBT community: "One is that the gay community will support whole-heartedly John Kerry and John Edwards for president and vice president because they are two men that are going to unite this country and they are going to fight for equality for every American citizen, they're going to fight for a stronger economy and better schools and safer homeland security and equal rights for all. They won't use the Constitution, a vessel of freedom, as a tool for discrimination."

Jacques also planned to emphasize "that gay lesbian, bisexual and transgendered individuals are busy contributing members of the United States family. They are hard-working Americans; we pay our taxes, many of us are raising children, we contribute to the community and we want the same things that every American wants. We want to be able to go to work and work hard and not be fired in 36 states simply for being gay. And we want the most core family responsibility of all, the right to take care of one another in sickness and in health. That's why we fight for basic principles like marriage equality. We want the right to serve our country as we already do and die for our country as we already do, but to do so openly and honestly," she said.

But even the media savvy Jacques, who has held her own against a parade of right-wing critics on the talk-show circuit, admitted representing the GLBT community to potentially millions of Americans at a presidential nominating convention can be nerve-wracking. "I'm a - I'm nervous. Yes," she laughed. "It's an excited nervous and it's a good nervous. My nervousness is about that the country has to make the right choice, that there's so much at stake for this country. There's so much at stake for the gay community," said Jacques, noting that the next president would potentially be in the position to appoint three U.S. Supreme Court Justices. "And with President Bush willing to use the Constitution and cheapen it and taint it and kick it around like a political football, he has shown the very worst of his colors, and four more years of him I think would be a devastating course of history for all Americans, and particularly GLBT Americans."

Jacques was not alone in her desire to use the convention to make a pitch for advancing GLBT rights. Increasing the community's clout within the Democratic Party was a motivating factor for delegates and organizations like the National Stonewall Democrats (NSD), which orchestrated a campaign to send more of its members to this year's convention as delegates.

"I think it's crucial for our party to be representative of Americans, and certainly our community is part of America," said NSD Communications Director John Marble. "And I think the more our community participates in the democratic process and participates in the processes of the Democratic Party it's going to help our families in the long run. Because the more we're at the table, the more people see us, the more people listen to our issues and want to work on our issues.

"I think the ... more LGBT people we have at the convention, the more ordinary our families become," he added. "And people see that the needs that we have are the same needs that every family has and that we need to support all families. So it's more of a long-term thing."

The desire to create change through visibility is what brought delegate Rick Wallace from his home in Royal Oak, Michigan, to the convention. "I've never been to a convention before and I've been working with the Democratic Party for a number of years so I wanted to come just to support the nominee and participate in the process," said Wallace, one of two openly gay Michigan delegates. "I think it's important that lesbian and gay people do participate in the process. The more of us that are out there and talking to our straight colleagues, the easier it'll be for our issues to move forward. We don't anymore live in a society where people who are in elected office can say, "I don't know anybody who's gay, I don't know anybody who's a lesbian," and the only reason that's true is because people are willing to be active and out in the process. I think that's one of the main reasons that I'm here."

Despite the GLBT community's disagreement with Kerry on the subject of same-sex marriage, he has generated a hopeful enthusiasm within its ranks not seen since Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton put gay issues on the Democratic Party's front burner with his pledge to lift the military's gay ban during his 1992 campaign - an unfulfilled promise that set the stage for other failures on gay rights during the Clinton administration, most notably the passage of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. But GLBT Democrats expressed confidence their enthusiastic support for Kerry will not end in disappointment.

Wallace is confident that Kerry will produce tangible results for the gay community where Clinton could not.

While Clinton "tried to do the right thing," Wallace pointed out, "he started off with a fairly inept PR campaign for the gays in the military issue and he just got clobbered on that. And after that happened he backed away and didn't want to spend his political capital on the issues. I think things have changed because people understand now what kind of battles we face. Certainly the issue of marriage has made it quite clear to everybody else the lengths that our opponents will go to and I think there's a more mature understanding of how we need to approach change in our community. There are a lot more openly gay and lesbian people now than there were back then. We've had the Bowers v. Hardwick decision overturned by the Supreme Court and it's a different climate. So we have to be careful that the same sort of thing doesn't happen, but I don't think it will. I think John Kerry has been with us even more than Bill Clinton was up to this point. He was one of the few who voted against DOMA when he was in the Senate. So I'm more optimistic with him and with the changed climate in the country. We didn't have a lot of the mass media shows that we have now back then depicting gay and lesbian lives - as strange as some of the depictions are. People are a lot more comfortable with the fact that we exist and that we're here and with our neighbors and that makes a big difference also."

NSD Executive Director Dave Noble acknowledged that the tussle over gays in the military that resulted in the much-maligned "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" compromise was a learning experience. "Yeah there was a sense of disappointment when all that happened [when] we thought the world would change," he said. "But I think we learned in that time period that progress has moved faster for us than any other civil rights movement in human history. But we still have to cross our t's and dot our i's, and educate people. It's not just about winning the White House, it's also about making sure we have our folks lined up in Congress," said Noble, adding that NSD is working to win back Democratic control of the Senate and increase Democratic representation in the House - including electing more openly gay Congress members. But Noble is clear that however one feels about the past failings of the Democratic Party, Kerry is the clear choice for the gay community.

"You know George Bush could not be more different and could not be more harmful to the gay and lesbian community," he said. "And this isn't just a matter of, 'here's someone who will move us forward,' it's a matter of, 'Let's choose between the person who will move us forward and the person who is trying to push us backwards.'"

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