Panelists here include:

• *Patrick Guerriero (President of Log Cabin and LEF - I’ll have a video interview of him on this blog soon)
• *Toni Broaddus (Executive Director of the Equality Federation)
• *Neil Giuliano (President of GLAAD - working on a time to get a video interview with him in the near future)
• *Matt Foreman (Executive Director of the Task Force)
• *with moderation by Chuck Wolfe (Executive Director of the Victory Fund - Click here for exclusive MeetJustin video interviews with Chuck).

There is a lot going on here - questions and answers flying around - so I’ll try to give a quick rundown…

• *no one seems to like Rick Santorum or Tom Delay
• *a lot of gay people are Democ…er…non-Republicans and are coming to grips with having moderate Republian friends
• *When responding to the question what is the primary goal of the gay movement, Matt Foreman said “staying where we are”. He meant fighting back anti-gay measures on marriage, adoption, etc. (Author’s commentary…Honestly, it seems like defeatist language to me.) k
• *Guerriero says that being who we are and showing people that sexuality and being gay is not a choice is the best way “to win and win fast.”
• *Giuliano says that defense is not the answer - that offense (like the training programs his org does) is the key to winning and changing minds.
• *Foreman said the gay movement has spent most of its existence focusing on Washington, DC and changing things there and have neglected grassroots organizing and giving to group that make up the Equality Federation.
• *Guerriero says that if you think the next Democratic President will sovle all your problems you are kidding yourselves and if we think the next Republican President will solve all our problems we are kidding ourselves.
• *Guerriero says that leaders of gay groups need to do an audit and find out where they are lacking and focus there. Also, that even the LCRs have not done enough to get their members to go up to their legislators and tell their stories.
• *Giuliano says that the phrase “Coming Out” needs to go - it was a hold over from the 1960’s - and be replaced with “Living Honest“. The new generation doesn’t understand “Coming Out” because times have changed.
• *Broaddus says that those who oppossed same-sex marriage in Massachuestts found that “the sky in Massachusetts did not fall”.
• *Foreman says that the battleground states where we can win are Wisconsin and Arizona.
• *Guerriero says we should not talk about those who oppose us in a manner in which denies us the opportunity to talk to them in the future - i.e. calling them “bigots”

• *Foreman responds by saying the leaders on the right need to be called out as bigots because they are using gay issues for political benefit
• *Guerriero responds by saying the LCRs have held leaders on the right to the fire much more often than the gay leaders have of those on the left. That Hillary Clinton isn’t for marriage equality and supports DOMA and yet she is revered by many on the left.

And we’re done with the conference for the day.

My hands hurt :(  hahahahaha