A group called Queer Rising is relatively new to the lobbying scene, but the group of 20 or so members has been successful in stealing the gay rights activism spotlight from the tired ol' coozes at the Empire State Pride Agenda and want to be a force to be reckoned. Over at City Hall newspaper, Selena Ross speaks with Natasha Dillon, a coordinator of the Queer Rising group, who says they want "they want civil disobedience and street-level activism."

“I would say our group is younger,” said Dillon, 25. “People are just fed up, that's basically it. It’s people who are just fed up with the old lobbying and just sitting back and hoping that our rights will eventually come to us.”

As Ross reports, since December, Dillon and fellow activists have crashed Hiram Monserrate’s Christmas party, chained themselves to the door of a New York City marriage bureau, heckled Harold Ford Jr., phone-banked for José Peralta, and spent several nights a week attending community board meetings in the districts of Democratic state senators who voted ‘no.’ They were also responsible for that Valentine's Day demonstration. Instead of getting heavily involved in the drudgery (and disappointment) of elections, the Queer Rising organizers say they want to help by keeping gay rights in the public eye, continuing to show up any event where they can make direct appeals to voters and remind them who voted ‘no’ in December.