ABSTRACT
The new round of anti-gay Christian ballot measures was underway with a number of defeats for authors in Oregon, yet national organizations were still so focused on the military issue and Washington that there was no broadly coordinated response. Each small gay community was basically left to its own devices. Only the National Gay Task Force was offering even one-day "Fight the Right" workshops. The only major political obstacle came in Albany where a small political group organized by the writer Barbara Smith objected to us using the name "Freedom Ride," which they said would be insulting to black heterosexuals. The Avengers discussed this criticism with the utmost seriousness and came to a unanimous decision among sixty women to continue with the name "Freedom Ride." The differences between moderate gays in Lewiston and radical gays in Lewiston—between assimilationist campaigns and openly gay campaigns—are being debated all across the country.
