The Iowa Democratic Party’s proposed 2012 platform condemns “all forms of discrimination” and, in direct contrast with the platform Iowa Republicans have drafted, the Democrats’ document supports same-sex marriage. 

The Iowa Democratic Party’s platform will be debated and ratified at the party’s state convention on June 16. The draft platform says Democrats support the “right to choose in family planning and marriage.” It calls upon the U.S. military to “recognize same-sex marriages in the armed forces.” The document refers to marriage as a “civil right” and calls for a law that would extend all federal benefits currently available to heterosexual couples to same-sex couples.

Iowa Democrats’ 2010 platform stated opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act and support for “marriage equality” but did not declare that same-sex marriage was a “civil right.” 

While Republicans in Iowa and elsewhere have been trying to “defund” Planned Parenthood, the proposed Iowa Democratic Party platform calls for “increased funding for Planned Parenthood.” It also says Democrats oppose the XL Pipeline and it calls for banning the use of lead shot while hunting.

Read the entire draft of the 2012 Iowa Democratic Party Platform. 

While the Iowa Democrats’ proposed platform strongly allies the party with traditional themes, like support of union collective bargaining rights and “affordable health care for all,” it includes some sentiments that seem to be reaching for independent voters. At the very beginning of the draft, the Iowa Democrats’ platform says Democrats “recognize that we will not get everything we want” and that “compromise is necessary when important values conflict and priorities of different people are not the same.” Later, the document declares that Democrats “put country ahead of partisanship.” However, in a section about the 2012 General Election, the document suggests Democrats “denounce” those who oppose national health care reform. Curiously, the document embraces the label Republican critics have attached to that law, as the platform says Iowa Democrats “support Obamacare.”

The Iowa Democratic Party is holding a hearing on its platform this evening from 7-9 p.m. at the party’s state headquarters in Des Moines. Only registered Democratic voters are allowed to participate.

(This story was updated at 12:06 p.m. with information about participation restriction for tonight’s hearing.)