GAY GROUPS TO FOCUS ON WINNING LOCAL BATTLES: From the Washington Blade

While gay leaders evaluated dozens of national strategies to consider in the fight for gay rights during last week's Creating Change conference in St. Louis, many advocated for a greater focus on state and local issues.

The 17th annual conference -- organized by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force -- included about 2,500 organizers from gay rights groups across the country reviewing legislative strategies for the upcoming years. ...

Some activists pointed to Connecticut as another example of a state taking on gay rights issues in a local and measured way. The Connecticut Legislature may consider a civil unions bill when it reconvenes in January.

The bill would likely have support from Democrats, who hold strong majorities in both houses, and possibly from Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and House Minority Leader Robert Ward, who have indicated they might be willing to expand rights for gay couples, though they both oppose gay marriage, according to the Danbury News Times.

Anne Stanback, president of Love Makes a Family, a Connecticut-based gay rights group, said she also expects to see a marriage bill introduced. Stanback said same-sex marriage bills have been introduced in previous years but have never made it out of committee. ...

Keith Boykin, a White House special assistant in the Clinton administration and a member of the National Black Justice Coalition, said meeting participants were "fired up" and ready to be "motivated and active," adding that it was important for the gay activists to have a multi-pronged strategy -- pushing for marriage, fighting for civil unions -- similar to tactics employed during the black civil rights struggle of the 1950s and '60s. ...

"It's not an either-or strategy. During the civil rights struggle, Dr. King pushed for a more moderate agenda than Malcolm X, but both men needed each other in many ways. For civil unions to have been taken seriously, marriage had to be pushed to the agenda."

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