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The new Democratic Party rules that changed the presidential primary schedule also established stricter standards for including LGBT people in the process.

Last week the Democratic National Committee took an important step toward ensuring full participation for LGBT Americans in our democratic process and demonstrated once again its commitment to promoting equality for the LGBT community. At its summer meeting in Chicago the DNC adopted new delegate selection rules--which guide how the party will select its presidential nominee in 2008--and changed its calendar of presidential primaries and caucuses to add early presidential nominating contests in two states. As a result of these new rules, LGBT Americans will have a greater voice in choosing that candidate.

For the first time in history, the DNC's delegate selection rules require that state parties adopt and implement inclusion plans designed to achieve full participation by LGBT Americans--along with Americans with disabilities and other traditionally underrepresented groups--in the political process. They require the presidential candidates themselves to use their best efforts to meet that goal, and require state parties to certify to the DNC that the presidential candidates have met their obligation. Gone are the days of empty, merely aspirational rules that require state parties to strive for equality but fail to hold them accountable.

The DNC also added Nevada and South Carolina, two states with large politically active LGBT communities, to the early presidential nominating process. This will encourage presidential campaigns to more fully engage the LGBT community in their agendas and will likely mean that their campaigns will hire more LGBT staffers at all levels.

The leaders of the national Democratic Party should be applauded for making sure that as Democrats choose our presidential nominee in 2008, LGBT Americans from Arkansas to Wyoming will have a voice in that process.

While these rules might seem like "inside baseball" for many LGBT Americans, they will have long-term positive consequences. The new rules seek to correct our community's historic underrepresentation in the political process. In particular, the newly required inclusion plans, aimed at achieving LGBT Americans' full political participation though their presence in the Democratic electorate, add critical elements of accountability to previous rules.

In the past, the national party merely encouraged state parties to do outreach to LGBT Americans. In practical terms, this typically meant sending out a press release containing information on how delegates are elected. The new rules require real actions, and real results--not just from the state party but from the presidential campaigns as well.

Although some state parties have formed partnerships with the LGBT community at the local level, too many have been reluctant to engage our community. These rules will open new doors in reluctant states to developing partnerships that will increase the voices of LGBT Americans in local, state, and national party affairs and in public-policy discussions. It will help to increase people's comfort levels with LGBT Americans and LGBT issues in those states, empowering more and more LGBT Americans to seek public office.

Even before these rules were adopted, the DNC's LGBT caucus had been working with National Stonewall Democrats on a plan that would provide much of the groundwork necessary to make these rules a success. Stonewall has committed to assisting and training state parties in drafting and achieving delegate selection goals that accurately reflect their LGBT communities. Stonewall plans to conduct training programs in 2007 that will equip LGBT Democrats with the resources needed to participate in the delegate selection process and in presidential campaigns. Stonewall and several other national LGBT organizations--including Human Rights Campaign and Victory Fund, who were involved in the discussions that led to these new rules--will be partners in the work ahead to ensure full LGBT community participation.

Like all accomplishments in our nation's ongoing struggle to promote equality for all, the progress the LGBT community has made in our struggle for equality has come through incremental steps forward. I share the frustration that many in our community feel about the slow pace of those advances. But the fact is, the DNC's new delegate selection rules are an important step forward--one that shows once again that the LGBT community has a reliable partner in the Democratic Party.

LGBT Americans should applaud these new rules, which remove barriers in many states that blocked fair representation in selecting our next president and will make it easier to provide us a place at the table.

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