Jul 11, 2008  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO J  | COMMENTS     

U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), one of two openly gay members of Congress, was among 20 people appointed this week to the Democratic National Convention’s Platform Drafting Committee.

The committee is charged with developing a first draft of the 2008 Democratic Party platform, and party insiders say the panel will likely deliberate over whether to propose language that goes further than past years on gay issues. The panel is also expected to consider whether to include, for the first time, a plank addressing transgender issues.

Although the Democratic National Committee announced the names of the platform-drafting panel in a press release Tuesday, the campaign of presidential candidate Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, is believed to have played a key role in selecting the panel.

Under longstanding tradition, the party’s presidential nominee gains control of the platform drafting process, usually because the nominee has won a majority of the delegates to the convention. Under party rules, the delegates must vote to approve the final draft of the platform at the convention.

The DNC also announced that it was joining the Obama campaign in organizing platform meetings in all 50 states between July 19 and July 27 to enable voters to express their views on the contents of the platform.

Although Obama has declined to support legalizing same-sex marriage, he supports civil unions for same-sex couples and has expressed overall support for gay and transgender rights to a degree beyond that of any previous presidential candidate from a major U.S. political party.

“The world is such a different place from four years ago,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “Senator Obama has a good record of support on GLBT issues.”

According to the DNC, Karen Kornbluh, who until now has served as policy director for Obama’s Senate office, would become the principal author of the draft platform. Michael Yaki, an attorney and former senior aide to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), has been named national platform director, according to the DNC announcement.

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano was named chairperson of the platform drafting committee and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm was named a member of the panel.

Four years ago, gay Democratic activists praised the 2004 Democratic Party platform for including the most far-reaching language on gay rights than any previous Democratic platform. But activists expressed disappointment that the 2004 document omitted language calling for civil rights protections for transgender persons and only made a veiled reference to the issue of gays in the military.

In a section on civil rights, the 2004 Democratic Party Platform — which remains in effect until the Democratic Convention in August of this year — states, “We will enact the bipartisan legislation barring workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation.”

Instead of calling for repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy on gays in the military, as requested by gay Democratic activists, the 2004 platform states, “We are committed to equal treatment of all service members and believe all patriotic Americans should be allowed to serve our country without discrimination, persecution and violence.”

Party officials, led by the presidential campaign of then-Democratic nominee John Kerry, rejected calls for a platform plank supporting same-sex marriage and instead adopted language that many gay Democrats considered a reasonable compromise that took the party further than ever before on same-sex relationships.

“We support full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibilities, benefits and protections for these families,” the 2004 platform states. “In our country, marriage has been defined at the state level for 200 years, and we believe it should continue to be defined there. We repudiate President Bush’s divisive effort to politicize the Constitution by pursuing a ‘Federal Marriage Amendment.’ Our goal is to bring Americans together, not drive them apart.”

Gay civil rights attorney Roberta Achtenberg, who served as an assistant secretary of housing during the Clinton administration, was a member of the 16-person drafting committee that wrote the draft of the 2004 platform.

Achtenberg said that while the platform didn’t go as far as she would have liked on gay issues, its clear opposition to a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage represented a bold stance at a time when many Democrats were wavering on the issue of gay marriage.