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Health & Fitness

LGBT Democratic Caucus - Democratic Convention report

LGBT Democratic Caucus Celebrates in Charlotte

LGBT Caucus – Democratic National Convention
Charlotte, NC
Tuesday, Sept.  4, 2012

by Glen Nethercut

Are we better off now than four years ago when President Obama was elected? To the crowd attending the LGBT Caucus meeting on opening day of the Democratic Convention on Tuesday the answer was clear. “Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!” they chanted.

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They were celebrating the largest LGBT delegation in the party’s history and the first Convention platform ever to confirm marriage equality. And lesbians, gays men, bisexuals and transgender citizens had much more to applaud thanks to President Obama, including his support for same-sex marriage, ending the military’s dismal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy excluding LGBT’s from serving their country, passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. law preventing hate crimes against LGBT people, and enactment of the Affordable Health Care Act protecting all Americans.

This Conventions’ over 5,700 delegates include 551 representing LGBT’s: from the 76 men and women of California, to the 15 from North Carolina and the 1 from Kansas, the Charlotte Convention represents a high point in the 40-year effort of LGBT’s to gain a fair and equal place at the table of American politics.

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It’s a significant and important accomplishment. As Tammy Baldwin, the Wisconsin Democrat running for U.S. Senate, noted: “When you’re not in the room, they’re talking about you. When you’re in the room, they’re talking with you.” 

Baldwin, a Congressional veteran and the first open lesbian to win a non-incumbent seat to the House of Representatives, was welcomed to chants of “Tammy! Tammy!”  She has been campaigning for 15 months. Winning her race would also make her the first openly LGBT elected to the Senate, bringing LGBT’s further into the American center.

But Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius also warned these victories are not secure, and could quickly be rolled back by the extreme policies of a Romney-Ryan administration. That threat united everyone in the room in their support to reelect the President.

The two-hour Caucus ended with lengthy applause and a roll call of LGBT delegates from the 50 states plus Guam and Puerto Rico. 

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