Jeremy Wadsworth, Block News Alliance Scott Safier of Pittsburgh, a member of the Pennsylvania delegation's platform-writing committee who was joined with his partner in a Vermont civil union four years ago, attends the gay and lesbian caucus at the Sheraton Hotel in Boston. Click photo for larger image.

BOSTON -- Ken Carty of Quincy, Mass., wasted little time marrying his partner of 10 years when the Massachusetts Legislature, under court order, legalized same-sex marriage earlier this year.

Yesterday, as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, Carty looked around a room of more than 200 openly gay and lesbian Democratic Party representatives who cannot get married in their home states, and who are fighting a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would ban same-sex marriage.

Carty said he understands nevertheless why the presidential campaign of Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry would rather not raise high the profile of such a divisive issue at a convention designed to appeal to middle America. "I think it's going to take some time for education," he said. "We're still dealing with a minority population, and the party has to be sensitive to that."

The nearly 5,000 Democratic Party representatives attending the Boston convention include at least 255 gay and seven transgender delegates. The Democratic platform addresses gay unions with a single paragraph on page 36 of its proposed 37-page platform.

Without using the term "civil union," the party seeks "full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation" and "equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families." The platform maintains that states should continue to be the final arbiter of marriage and condemns President Bush's support for the federal constitutional amendment.

"Our goal is to bring Americans together, not drive them apart," it reads.

Singer-songwriter Carole King, speaking to the gay and lesbian delegates, said that's not good enough. "I do not agree with [Kerry's] stance on gay marriage," she said. "He needs a little more time to come to a different position. I think that with our support, love, openness and encouragement, he will eventually come to where we are."

Gay members of Kerry's campaign staff talked about pushing the issue more aggressively during the caucus meeting, but it remains far from front and center at the convention.

Openly gay U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., was scheduled to speak before the convention last night during prime time about the issue of health care.

The gay and lesbian delegates caucusing as a group in Boston say that while equal rights for gays is important to them, it is not as important as the war in Iraq or the national economy.

"The platform reflects where the majority of Americans are," said John Marble, spokesman for National Stonewall Democrats. "This is an issue our nation is struggling with. The job of our community is to educate the people, and our job is to educate the party."

Bush campaign spokesman Kevin Madden said the president's position is more in tune with the American people. "The American electorate believes that activist judges are trying to rewrite [what constitutes] marriage," he said. "That's why [Bush] started the process for a constitutional amendment."

Massachusetts is enforcing a 1914 law limiting marriage to state residents, which seems to have stymied any attempt by gay delegates to marry while in Boston. The law is currently being challenged in court.

"I am appalled that any American would want to marginalize any person," said Louis Escobar, president of the Toledo, Ohio, city council. Escobar has lived with his male partner for 16 years and is one of 10 openly gay voting delegates from Ohio.

"I've worked all my life," Ecsobar said. "I've paid my taxes. I've been a productive member of society. To say that this mere fact [of homosexuality] means I don't have certain rights in this country is amazing. They've forgotten that the people who founded this country came here because they were excluded from somewhere else."

Scott Safier of Pittsburgh and his partner went to Vermont in 2000, taking advantage of that state's law recognizing civil unions. A member of the delegation's platform-writing committee, Safier said he was glad that the platform calls for equal rights instead of endorsing "civil unions," even though it falls short of an outright endorsement of same-sex marriage.