Gay activists map strategy

Friday, Jan. 30, 2009
By KRISTEN WYATT
Associated Press Writer

DENVER -- There's a party mood at the nation's largest gathering of gay activists after the inauguration of President Barack Obama. But amid the cheers is plenty of talk about what went wrong last year when anti-gay ballot measures passed, and concern that the economy has overshadowed gay-rights questions.

Some 2,000 members of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force erupted in whoops and applause whenever the president was mentioned, with the group's head quipping that the name "Obama" will make an easy applause line before gay crowds for months to come.

But conference members also hunkered down to talk about their failures last year: four anti-gay ballot measures that passed even as the nation voted for what organizers call the most gay-friendly president in history.

"We know that our moment has arrived," proclaimed the task force's president, Rea Carey. the rest

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