I still would like to see EAA go on, but I'd like to see something happen too. With all of the repetition of the "NOW!" meme, they've been extremely slow to act after the march. Everyone has had time to catch their breath, its time to move. People who went to the march are losing interest. They want to act now, they're not willing to wait forever. Let's Get our buts in GEAR!

All politics, arguments, opinions aside on the NEM and the future of EAA: The NEM organizers were financially responsible and prudent and should be applauded for that fact.

I hope they can find a way to resolve their issues for the betterment of the community. If not, I hope Tides Center uses the money for the benefit of the LGBTQ community.

It would have been smarter for the organizers to have spent some money to hire an additional person or two to focus on the NEM which would have freed someone like Kip WIlliams up to focus on building the infrastructure for EAA.

It does not make sense that they spoke so much about what would happen after the NEM without putting resources and thinking into developing a strategic plan for after NEM.

The DC Host Committee for the march continues its work as "Full Equality Now DC" to support continuation of the activist spirit evoked by the march. For example:

Several of our members testified on behalf of the gay marriage bill now before the DC City Council.

After the defeat in Maine we organized a protest in DuPont Circle, which was attended by over 120 supporters. There are several videos of the event, with speeches and crowd shots on the Metro Weekly web site: http://www.metroweekly.com/gauge/last_word/2009/11/dupont-circle-protest-of-maine.html

We meet every Wednesday at the Metropolitan Community Church at 5th & Ridge Streets (between M&N). We meet at 7PM.

This is a great place to come to find out what other LGBTQ grassroots activists in the DC area are doing and what opportunities are emerging for service.

What sort of service? We provide "boots on the ground" to help implement LGBTQ political action locally and through our relatively convenient access to the Federal government.

We are the people who led the nation on October 11 to demand full civil equality in all matters before the law. Our demand is simple and absolute. We demand that our government live up to the high principles on which our nation was founded--freedom and liberty--equality for all.

Join us in this major civil rights movement for the new century.

Come now, or you will miss out on the fun of helping form a newborn grassroots movement. This is the time to meet fellow activists and develop the bonds of friendship that will enable us to work successfully as individuals, team members, and team leaders through the great social transformation that is finally underway for our community.

It seems to me that now is perfect time to call a national conference of activists who can act for our communities by being independent of front groups for the two bigot parties, the Democrats and Republicans.

What we need to reverse all these losses and begin winning is a group that expresses the will of activists instead of people who front for the Democrats, who have a mass action perspective and who are agreeable to operating with a thoroughly democratic internal structure that operates as much as possible without paid functionaries, with a leadership elected on the basis of their political perspective, subject to easy recall and paid a modest stipend, one more like a Ford Escort than a Lincoln Navigator.

It’d be best if that conference were called by the EAA, and if not we’ll just have to wait on events to call one. In any case all this circling of vultures waiting for EAA to give up and die is unseemly.