ABSTRACT
As with virtually all other aspects of my later lobbying of Congress, I relied on my Minnesota experience to guide me. With the help of my friends from the Minnesota Americans for Democratic Action and the DFL Feminist Caucus, I began to learn the process and realize that these legislators represented not only the “best and brightest” but also some of the most stupid human beings I'd ever met. I also quickly discovered, however, that while there was significant carryover from the state to the national level, there were plenty of significant differences as well. One of the most formidable was the fact that it remained extremely difficult to get lesbians and gay men to care about what happened in Congress. This was also somewhat true at the state and local levels, but national efforts seemed so remote, and the chances of meaningful change so slim, that I had to be as pushy as I ever remember being simply to get attention to our efforts.
