WASHINGTON — A recent uptick in support of same-sex marriage nationwide and increasing support to add the issue to the Democratic Party platform at the August convention has energized LGBT advocates and complicated an already delicate situation facing President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign.
In the past month, almost half of all Democratic senators, several of Obama’s national campaign co-chairs, the House Minority Leader and the chairman of the Democratic convention, among others, have said they support adding marriage equality to the platform. Were this the position that the president held, such proclamations would not be a problem. But Obama says he is still publicly “evolving” on marriage equality. And the wave of support to make it a component of his convention has both surprised aides and set off a private push to keep emotions and expectations in check.
Interviews with more than a dozen party officials and activists reveal that despite widespread and growing support for marriage equality among Americans, the issue is still viewed as politically sensitive in the top ranks of the Democratic Party. While many high-profile figures have publicly advocated for including strong language in the platform, the Obama campaign and the allied Democratic National Committee are searching for ways to split the difference: showing support for equality but stopping short of a full-fledged endorsement.
Publicly, this friction has yet to surface. During a conference call with reporters on March 7, Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina avoided the matter, saying that all decisions would be made by the convention’s platform committee, whose members had yet to even be chosen.
“There’s a process,” he said, “and the DNC will go through that, and we will have a platform.”
Behind the scenes, however, there are concerns that expectations surrounding the platform’s language are moving beyond electoral feasibility. Those concerns peaked when Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D), who is the chair of the convention, responded affirmatively when asked whether he thought the platform “should have a marriage equality plank.”
“I do,” he replied. “I think it’s basic to who we are. … I don’t think the government should be in that business of denying people the fundamental right to marry.
That Villaraigosa would publicly support same-sex marriage was not a surprise; he is co-chair of the group Mayors for Freedom to Marry. It was the timing of the remarks that caught Obama insiders off guard. Within a few days, Villaraigosa was offering a more lawyerly position.
“It is up to the delegates of the Democratic Party to draft the Democratic Party platform,” he told the Sacramento Bee. “Our delegates will put the platform together and I suspect it will be very inclusive.”
A spokesman for the mayor insisted that he stands firmly by his belief that marriage equality should be part of the platform and was simply making clear that he does not control the drafting process. But other sources told The Huffington Post that the DNC has been asking advocates for patience, worried that more sweeping platform language would put the president in an awkward bind.
“The DNC folks — their political shop — have been calling people and really pressuring them,” said Paul Yandura, a political and fundraising strategist at the firm Scott+Yandura who led gay and lesbian outreach on both Bill Clinton and Al Gore’s presidential campaigns. “Look, I’m not going to claim that they’re pressuring them not to be for it, but this ‘let’s wait’ thing is always what happens in politics — let’s wait so they can find a way to slow this down and maybe get a good reason not to do it.”
“But that doesn’t mean that activists and other people have to wait and see,” Yandura added. “I think that we have to keep up the pressure.”
Melanie Roussell, a spokesperson for the DNC, did not directly refute Yandura’s assertion. Instead, she emphasized the party’s commitment to equality and inclusion, with respect to both LGBT Americans and the platform process.
“The President and the Party are committed to crafting a platform that reflects our values and a belief that this is a nation in which everyone deserves a fair shot and hard work is rewarded,” she wrote in an email to The Huffington Post. “The time will come to consider the content of the platform but not a single platform committee member has been chosen and the process has yet to begin.”