http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/national/14gays.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
November 14, 2004
T. LOUIS, Nov. 13 - In one room, young gay activists were learning the basics of opposition research and analyzing the power of get-out-the-vote videos produced by evangelical groups. In another, the opponents of recent state amendments prohibiting gay marriage debated which strategies were more effective: Going door to door? Holding town hall meetings? Asking church congregations to give them an audience?
About 2,500 organizers from gay groups across the country gathered for a conference here this weekend, the first large-scale gathering since the Nov. 2 elections, when voters in 11 states resoundingly approved amendments to their constitutions against same-sex marriage and gave a majority to a president depicted in one doctored video here as the Wicked Witch of the West.
They came running on anger, determined to learn how to outwork opponents whom they saw as better financed and better organized. They insisted that court battles over marriage would continue. But they also said that there was a longer and tougher battle ahead, summed up in the title of one of the weekend workshops: "Winning in the Court of Public Opinion." And while people here insisted that they were determined and upbeat, it was hard not to be sobered by what many here declared was the enshrinement of discrimination against gays in state constitutions.