Obama Campaign Dodges On Including Marriage Equality In Democratic Platform: ‘There’s A Process’

During a conference call this afternoon, the Obama campaign dodged questions about whether President Obama would support including marriage equality in the 2012 Democratic platform and insisted that the Democrats have a better record on LGBT equality than the GOP, pointing to Republican calls for reinstating the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy and their support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Responding to reports that Democratic Convention Chair and LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has endorsed Freedom To Marry’s campaign to incorporate same-sex marriage in the document, campaign manager Jim Messina reiterated the president’s accomplishments to advance the equal rights of LGBT Americans, adding that “there’s a process” for writing the platform that will play out:

MESSINA: Look, we’re the big tent party here. POTUS has a great record on fighting for fundamental fairness for all Americans. You know, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and many other accomplishments we are very very proud of. You know, there’s a process — there’s no even a delegate platform committee yet — there’s a process to go through this discussion, and the DNC will go through that, and we will have a platform.

But our record stands in sharp contrast to the other side. And what the other side has said is they want a constitutional amendment on anti-marriage, they want to put back into place Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and a bunch of other regressive policies. And so that couldn’t be any more contrasted with our record. So there will be a process for that and we will go through that process.

Obama has so far said that he is “evolving” on the issue. At least 22 senators and seven co-chairs of President Obama’s re-election bid have indicated their support for including the measure in the platform.