Direct action and the gay rights movement

Last week's high-profile direct-action protests to call attention to the federal marriage ban and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy staged by new LGBT group GetEQUAL showed the power of such actions, if they are tied to a "coherent" political strategy that includes the major LGBT groups and online tools, according to grass-roots organizer and strategist Michael Crawford.

"There's a lot of LGBT generated political heat right now," Crawford says. "Let's work to ensure that it leads to the fires of real change. The LGBT community needs and demands it."