Convention of Hawai???i Democrats in Honolulu
Posted by on May 30, 2006, 5:24 am
Aloha ahiahi kakou.
Just returning from the statewide Convention of Hawai???i Democrats in Honolulu over the weekend. The inclusiveness of the party is still in tact. There was no challenge to the Rules clause that forbids discrimination with regards to sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, along with other immutable human characteristics.
The Platform clearly states "We believe all human beings should heave the right to have their basic needs supplied, and have the right to be treated equally, with no discrimination on the basis of age, ethnicity, skin color, race, sexual orientation or gender identity. We oppose any laws that would deprive anyone of equal treatment under the laws and in the work place. With regard to the separation of church and state, we believe that marriage as a religious institution should be a matter for the various religious groups who perform marriages, while civil partnerships should be controlled by the state government and open to all who apply." The Platform goes on to state "We affirm that the state should not interfere with couples who choose to marry and share fully and equally in the rights, responsibilities and commitment of civil marriage, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity."
Many other clauses in the Platform also forbid discrimination with regards to sexual orientation or gender identity.
The convention dealt with well over a hundred resolutions, and the Convention supported, without a single dissention, four of our community's resolutions:
1) Support for Civil Unions in this state;
2) Opposition and calling for the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell";
3) Opposition to the passage of the Federal Marriage Amendment; and
4) Our community's right to have its issues and viewpoints considered in all aspects and levels of government lawmaking.
Kaua???i County Democrats over the past several years have initiated and supported resolutions regarding our community's concerns in housing equality rights, employment rights, discrimination-free public accommodations and hate crimes sentencing enhancement, which the state party in turn has adopted and passed. Those resolutions have found their way into the law books.
Many returning and some new community faces were present, including the "Muffy Mafia" from Maui, four young activists just venturing into politics on our community's behalf with kaikua???ana Lance's guidance.
It was a great convention, but received mediocre coverage from lazy and biased journalists who only choose to attend for a couple of hours on one day and thereby missed all the great, collective work that took place over the preceeding days and nights.
The actions that took place at the convention on our community's behalf continues to amaze me and gives me hope that we can, one day, achieve full equality in this society, if we don't lose heart, but rather just keep plugging along . . . .
Martin
~~pau~~
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