Democratic Party Platform 1980

Historic context

LGBTQ communities saw the advancement of their place in society and their rights throughout the sixties and seventies fluctuate, creating a tense and divisive environment around LGBTQ rights in the eighties. In the sixties, a militant form of activism arose in response to police harassment, raids, mistreatment, and negative portrayals in media. Mental institutions castrated, sterilized, lobotomized, and experimented with pharma-logical waterboarding, often leaving LGBTQ individuals seriously injured or traumatized. The media portrayed gays as a danger to society, promiscuous, and choosing to live a certain lifestyle; this is demonstrated with the 1961 film “Boys Beware,” that portrayed gays as pedophiles, and “The Homosexual Reports,” of 1967 issued by the government to define what it meant to be a homosexual, and the Kinsey Reports that claimed a homosexual epidemic. The Stonewall Riots of 1969 were characterized as being the start of the Gay Liberation Movement because LGBTQ people violently asserted themselves en masse for the first time. In the sixties and seventies other civil rights movements progressed, demanded law reform, and questioned society, including the Black Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Movement. LGBTQ communities and institutions grew in the seventies around a cause for their protection, equal treatment, and pride with organizations such as Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, Gay Activist Alliance, a branch within the ALA, and Gay and Lesbian Task Force. In politics, Harvey Milk, an openly gay man, was elected to the San Francisco county board but then later assassinated.

Photo used with permission.

What happened?

In 1980, the Democratic National Convention was the first American political party to officially incorporate a plank preventing discrimination by sexual orientation into their platform. Though the language employed was very general, it was a significant advancement in the gay liberation movement, called “a clear victory” by gay rights activists (“TheWorld”). Both Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter, the Democratic Party’s 1980 candidates for President, supported the addition of gay rights to the platform.

"[This amendment was] a life-long dream come true for me. I didn't think I would see it in my life, I really didn't." - Jo Daly, openly gay San Francisco police commissioner (Body Politic 1980)

Photo credit attributed to Flickr and Jimmy Carter Library and Museum.

The Plank

Part of a section on civil rights states, “We must affirm the dignity of all people and the right of each individual to have equal access to and participation in the institutions and services of our society, including actions to protect all groups from discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex or sexual orientation” (Glover 1980).

How did it happen?

Many lesbian and gay activists had been lobbying for years to include a sexual orientation clause in the anti-discrimination statement. Organizations like the National Convention Project, “Gay Vote 1980,” the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club and the Harvey Milk Democratic Club had been pushing for gay rights within the Democratic Convention for many years. In fact in 1972, Jim Foster, a representative of the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, brought the “Gay liberation plank” before the national convention’s platform committee for consideration but faced too much opposition (Purkiss). A coalition of national lesbian and gay organizations sponsored the movement,“Gay Vote 1980” to push for the addition of a gay rights plank in both parties (Gay Vote 1980).

Check out this essay by Virginia Apuzzo, member of National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, on her work in gay rights activism.

Other Candidates

Republican Illinois representative John Anderson ran as an Independent after dropping out of the Republican primary and was a co-sponsor for the federal lesbian and gay rights bill. Some people at the time thought that this move by a Republican candidate encouraged Democrats to incorporate sexual orientation in a civil rights statement within their plank in order to compete for the gay and lesbian votes (Sudell 1980). Reagan, like other Republicans, issued statements opposing discrimination against lesbians and gays (Gay Community News), yet openly disapproved of homosexuals. Under his administration, no gay rights legislation was passed and his inaction during the AIDS epidemic was highly criticized by LGBT communities.

The Aftermath

Unfortunately for liberals, abortion and homosexual rights were two of the only positions in the Democratic party that became more liberal between 1976 and 1980 (Weaver 1984). The nation as a whole seemed to be experiencing a political realignment, pushed to the right by the politics of men like Ronald Reagan and Jerry Falwell. “The Republican party was able to paint the socially tolerant Democratic Party as being dominated by a ‘radical fringe’ of feminists, black radicals and the sexually permissive” (Stanley 2009). This tactic proved to be successful in 1980 when Reagan beat Carter, the incumbent in a landslide.Map from Wikimedia - public domain

Effects and significance

The push for a gay rights plank in the Party platforms encouraged more gay, lesbian, and bisexual people to get involved in politics. 71 openly gay delegates were selected for the Democratic National Convention in 1980. The addition of the plank secured the gay vote for the Democratic Party as well, especially once the Republican Party restructured itself to be more conservative and officially disapproved of homosexuality. This is evident by the slowdown in the Democratic Party push for gay rights, notable in the 2000 election, when LGB voters polled were more interested in tangible economic benefits than civil rights and the Democrats did not have to compete at all for the gay vote.

The most immediately notable change this event caused was the conservative backlash against the progress so far achieved for gay rights. Some religious leaders were upset about the Democratic support of homosexuality, and organizations like The Moral Majority (created in 1979) increased lobbying efforts for a conservative anti-gay stance; the Republican Party embraced the influx of religiously-influenced political views (anti-homosexuality, anti-abortion) in order to secure the vote of a rapidly mobilizing group of religious conservative voters. Reagan’s election to the Presidency in 1980 incorporated these social policies into the traditional Republican platform of economic and foreign policies, building the foundation for a conservative coalition that would dominate politics for years to come. This prompted the development of a new Republican Party, which increasingly embraced extremely conservative ideas as their mainstream views.

Check out this Gay Vote 1980 op-ed about politicians in the 1980s striving for the "gay vote" across the country.

Primary source analysis

Glover, Michael. “Carter Supports Gay Plank For Democratic Platform.” Gay Community News, June 21, 1980.

This article was published in the newspaper, Gay Community News shortly after the event described. This proximity to the event is, in part why we chose it. We also wanted to hear a perspective from the gay community.
The article explains how Carter proposals submitted to the Democratic Platform Committee June 12 included an anti-discrimination statement for lesbians and gay men.
Part of a section on civil rights states, “We must affirm the dignity of all people and the right of each individual to have equal access to and participation in the institutions and services of our society, including actions to protect all groups from discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex or sexual orientation.”
This proposal had to be approved first by the Platform Committee and then by the convention itself.
The National Convention Project, “Gay Vote 1980,” had been hoping to achieve this in both parties’ platform all year.
Tom Bastow, co director of “Gay Vote 1980” said “the real political story is what’s going on around the country, not what’s happening in Washington. Carter, Ted Kennedy and other officials are realizing that there does finally seem to be a gay community that’s identifiable politically and that people are willing to work to further their interests.”
Another goal has been to select more openly LG delegates. In 1976, only 3 openly gay people were selected as delegates for the national convention (all democrats- two from NY, one from San Francisco).
1980 was the first time that openly gay delegates, one each from Chicago and New York City, were selected to the Republican National Convention.
35 openly gay/lesbian delegates and alternates selected for Democratic National Convention.

Sources

Sources of information

Andrew Humm and Betty Santoro.1980. 'If we gay men and lesbians' stand up. New York Times, Nov 01. (1923-Current File) Retrieved from https://ezproxy.elon.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/121347791?accountid=10730
Apuzzo, Virginia M. 2000. "Candidates now courting a group they once shunned." Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide 7, no. 2: 4.LGBT Life with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed January 13, 2016).
Brian Schaffner, and Nenad Senic. 2006. “Rights or Benefits? Explaining the Sexual Identity Gap in American Political Behavior”. Political Research Quarterly 59 (1). Sage Publications, Inc.: 123–32. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4148080.
cad. 1980. “Democrats Smile at Gays”. Off Our Backs 10 (8). off our backs, inc.: 15–15. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25773278.
Colantuono, Michael G., and Benjamin Schatz. 1984. “Gay Clout: The ’84 Democratic Convention.” Gay Community News, January 28.http://search.proquest.com/genderwatch/docview/199325604/citation/65A323E99D242F9PQ/18
“Democrats Promise to End Anti-Gay Bias.” 1980. Body Politic, no. 66, Septemb . 15–15. https://ezproxy.elon.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=qth&AN=10388090&site=ehost-live.
"'Gay Vote 1980' Shifts Focus to New Hampshire." 1980. Gay Community News, Feb 09, 3. https://ezproxy.elon.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/199318513?accountid=10730.
Glover, Michael. “Carter Supports Gay Plank For Democratic Platform.” 1980. Gay Community News, June 21. http://search.proquest.com/genderwatch/docview/199398859/citation/65A323E99D242F9PQ/6.
Gorman, Joseph B., comp. 1980. The 1980 Presidential Election: The Platforms Presented by the Anderson National Unity Campaign (Anderson/Lucey), The Democratic Party (Carter/Mondale), The Libertarian Party (Clark/Koch), and The Republican Party (Reagan/Bush), with Cross-Referenced Inde. Congressional Research Service of The Library of Congress. 111.
Purkiss, Nathan. “A History of the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and Transgender Democratic Club.” Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, 2009. http://www.alicebtoklas.org/history-of-alice/
Stanley, Timothy Randolph. 2009. “‘Sailing against the Wind’: A Reappraisal of Edward Kennedy’s Campaign for the 1980 Democratic Party Presidential Nomination.” Journal of American Studies 43, no. 2: 231–53. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40464379.
Sudell, Denise. "Anderson Backs Gay Rights Bill." 1980. Gay Community News, May 03, 1. https://ezproxy.elon.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/199400652?accountid=10730.
“TheWorld: Democrats Endorse Gay Rights Plank.” 1980. Body Politic, no. 65, August 17.https://ezproxy.elon.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=qth&AN=10392289&site=ehost-live.
Weaver, Warren. “Democrats’ platform shows a shift from liberal positions of 1976 and 1980.” 1984. New York Times, July. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/1984/07/22/us/democrats-platform-shows-a-shift-from-liberal-positions-of-1976-and-1980.html

Sources of images

- "GayVote 1980" used with permission and attributed to Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club
- Jimmy Carter Re-election campaign button photo used with permission and attributed to Flickr and Jimmy Carter Library and Museum.
- 1980 Electoral College Map on Wikimedia - public domain

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