Five years after the Millennium March fiasco, veteran activist Robin Tyler calls for an April 2008 March on Washington. (Source: The Washington Blade, June 10)

I agree with Tyler that gays should aim their fire at Democrats as well as Republicans.

But I also wonder whether folks like Tyler will ever realize that national marches drain vital energy and money from local and state equality efforts — and it is only through the transformation of local voter attitudes and local leadership that any change in Washington will ever occur.

No, Robin.

We do not need an umpteenth picnic and parade in a coastal blue state. And we certainly don’t need more news reports of circuit-party organizers withholding tens of thousands of dollars from Washington-area food vendors and charities.

It is past time for action, all right. It’s time for equality and freedom-of-religion advocates to rise up in the red states — in local churches, city halls, and schools. It’s time to compel the holier-than-thou to repent of strawman arguments, paranoia, harassment and warfare against fellow community members, people of faith, families — fellow Americans.

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