A tiny bit of respect and dignity

The GOP has issued a draft of its party platform. The sections on marriage are what we expect from them. Especially since Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council (the guy who is mighty upset that the SPLC has labeled the FRC a hate group) proclaims "… which I wrote."

Yup, the institution of marriage is so central to the foundation of the country we can't let gays take part. Therefore we'll go after the activist judges that demand states allow marriage and we're really upset with Obama for not defending the Defense of Marriage Act. But we'll say all this in a nice way: "We embrace the principle that all Americans should be treated with respect and dignity."

The platform will be approved at next week's convention.

The Log Cabin Republicans, the gay group that is trying to make the GOP more gay friendly, said that it had a hand in shaping it. That brought a round of guffaws. You were in the room so they tossed you that little bone about "respect and dignity." Yeah, they'll treat you with dignity as they drag you from your husband's hospital room, show respect as they haul you away from marriage license office, and won't call you bad names when they deport your immigrant husband.

The LCR responded by saying voters won't see the significant debates that happened and the closeness of the votes.

We were pleased to see vigorous debate on amendments in support of civil unions and to delete language regarding DOMA. While these measures failed, the future direction of our party clearly trends toward inclusion. This may well be the last time a platform will cater to the likes of the Family Research Council on marriage, and the fact is, platforms rarely influence policy.
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Only by being in the room and speaking conservative to conservative will we succeed in building a stronger and more inclusive Republican party.

And though all this stuff about marriage is "abysmal" the platform is an improvement over the 2008 version. This one says nothing about trying to reinstate the military's gay ban.

Timothy Kincaid of Box Turtle Bulletin adds a bit about that phrase "respect and dignity." The GOP platform has long had a generic version of that phrase in its preamble. This is the first time it is included in the discussion of marriage.