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August 02, 2004
Why there is no T in plaform
Details from the Boston Phoenix:
Two weeks ago, when party activists ironed out the language of the official Democratic Party platform, Scott Safier, a gay man from Pennsylvania, pushed the platform committee to include the phrase "gender identity" in its list of anti-discrimination categories. Safier wanted the Democrats to stand up not just for minorities, women, and gay people, but also for transgender people. But those two words set off a maelstrom, with cautious party activists fearing that "gender identity" would give the Republicans too much fodder for nasty political attack ads.The delegates didn’t find out about the controversy until 24 hours before the platform committee was scheduled to vote on the language. By then, according to Sklarz, "Our options were few to none." Sklarz (who describes herself as "a guy on the outside, a pile of goo inside" until she made the transition from a male to a female in 1989) explains the situation like this: she and her colleagues could either debate the platform on the floor of the DNC so as to stress the importance of transgender civil rights -- a move sure to go down in defeat. Or they could suck it up and push the issue at a later date, outside the convention spotlight. They chose to suck it up -- for the good of the overall party. The Republicans, after all, are masters of twisting truth just enough to make the Democrats look like they’re from outer space.
"The Republicans can sensationalize anything," Foster observes. The transgender delegates didn’t want to give the Bushies any ammunition to use against Kerry.
I'm still trying to picture how a pro-discrimination ad would play in the media, but maybe I'm being too optimistic to think it would hurt Bush more than help him.
Posted by Mike at August 2, 2004 07:09 PM
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