WP: Gay Rights Groups Map Common Agenda

Gay Rights Groups Map Common Agenda
Priorities Include Right to Marry, Ending Restrictions on Military Service

By Evelyn Nieves
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 17, 2005; Page A03


The November elections seemed to spell trouble for the gay equal rights movement, what with 11 new state laws banning same-sex marriages and wins for social conservatives in Congress.

Now, after weeks of soul-searching and much internal, and even public, debate over how to navigate the current political waters, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy organizations, known as LGBT rights groups, have a plan: to advance an ambitious agenda, including marriage rights.

To underscore their determination, 22 LGBT organizations, representing a spectrum of political goals and strategies, have, for the first time, released a joint list of priorities. They include pushing for equal employment opportunities; adding sexual orientation and gender identity to federal hate crimes law; fighting for protections for children of LGBT couples; overturning military restrictions on gay soldiers; opposing anti-gay state and federal legislation; and fighting for the freedom to marry....

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The groups banding together include the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which focuses its efforts on depictions of gays in the media; Log Cabin Republicans; National Stonewall Democrats; the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; and others....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14261-2005Jan16.html