Lesbian
congresswoman Tammy Baldwin was named to the Democratic
Party's Platform Drafting Committee this week, it was
announced Wednesday. Wisconsin's Baldwin, with 19
other appointees, is tasked with shaping the party's
agenda heading into the fall presidential election for the
presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama.
The Democrats
were seen as progressive in the 2004 election platform
process by including more gay rights language than ever
before, The Washington Blade reports. The agenda,
however, did not include civil rights protections for
transgender people and made limited references to the
military's ban on gay and lesbian service members. The
2004 platform will remain in effect until the 2008
plan is instituted in August at the convention in Denver.
Arizona governor
Janet Napolitano will lead the drafting committee. Other
members include Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm,
Maryland lieutenant governor Anthony Brown, labor
directors, policy advisers, and other Democratic
politicians.
Michael Yaki, a
former aide to House speaker Nancy Pelosi, will serve as
national platform director. Karen Kornbluh will be the
principal author of the platform. She is currently on
leave from Obama's Senate office, where she serves as
policy director.
The Obama
campaign is teaming up with the Democratic National
Committee to open the platform drafting process to the
public, in meetings across America from July 19 to 27.
The draft will serve as a preliminary document for the
full Platform Drafting Committee's consideration, which
will meet August 9 in Pittsburgh, according to the
Associated Press. (The Advocate)