July 30, 2004

some final thoughts, for this evening

For anyone who is curious, transcripts of all the speeches that we received [no final Sharpton transcript, sadly] are available in this directory including the Kerry and Biden speeches in Spanish, over 100 in all. If I get any later, I'll add them.

I am back at home in Vermont after getting a ride home from Massachusetts with my Married Gay Friends. I haven't seen them since the law went through in Massachusetts, and was just stupidly delighted to see them and their almost-one year old son. To me, the biggest thing to happen in Massachusetts politically has been gay marriage, other than Mitt Romney's complete dismantling of most of the social safety net in the state leaving many of my friends looking for new jobs. You'd think the Dems might have at least made a nod in that direction, seeing as the DNC was in Boston and everything. I sure did meet a lot of gay delegates and DNC staffers. But then again, they're over a barrel, aren't they? What are they going to do, vote for Bush?

The good news about having all the speeches go straight into gmail is that they're easily searchable. Here's who said the word "gay" in all those 100+ speeches.

Only Jacques and Achtenberg had speeches that mentioned gay marriage though I know Frank discussed it from the podium. Those three are, of course, the gay ones. I wonder how much they feel they need to suck up the absence of a gay marriage mention for the good of the party?

Here's how many times the word "gay" appears in the Democratic party platform: once. On the second to last page of a 41 page document, the platform says
We support full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families. In our country, marriage has been defined at the state level for 200 years, and we believe it should continue to be defined there. We repudiate President Bush's divisive effort to politicize the Constitution by pursuing a "Federal Marriage Amendment." Our goal is to bring Americans together, not drive them apart.
Posted by jessamyn at July 30, 2004 09:35 PM
Comments

Thank you for addressing this issue. I'm feeling abandoned by not only my Democratic representatives, but also the party in general. I'm not going to vote for a more conservative candidate, but I do feel put in a tight bind when my choices are far right-wing and right-of-center, for the most part.

Posted by: Anna at July 31, 2004 04:40 AM

THANK YOU for the speech directory, and for all of the happy fun DNC chronicle-ing. :)

Posted by: maire at July 31, 2004 10:48 AM

gay marriage hurts us with the general population, therefore no one talks about it. and then we run the risk of more anti-gay legislation. totally sucks.

Posted by: Eve at August 2, 2004 08:39 PM

I hope to see the bloggers out there (at BOTH conventions) paying attention to the topics that get ignored by the newshandlers and arrangement specialists, out of a pathetic and trembling fear that something unscripted might happen.
-Orange Mike

good2know
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