Leaving the Log Cabin fight: after four years, Log Cabin Republicans president Patrick Guerriero is stepping down to run the newly formed Gill Action Fund. So was he able to make a difference in a time when the far right seemed to be taking over the GOP? And shouldn't he be staying on during an election year?

You're leaving Log Cabin when the GOP needs all the help it can get in the run-up to the midterm elections, Are you still a Republican, or have you given up the fight?

I am still a Republican and do believe that there will be a resurgence of the centrist wing of the GOP in the next few years. One of the main reasons I'm staying on at LCR through the summer is to help rinse money to support some of the LGBT allies in the GOP who face tough primary and general election fights in November.

But why leave now?

There's something healthy about political organizations getting new leadership. I feel strongly that organizations, particularly within the LGBT movement, [should] remain mission-focused, not personality-based. On a personal note, four years of traveling to 50 states and three quarters of a million miles in the air is a lot of time and energy.

What was your biggest accomplishment at Log Cabin?

Helping the organization find a balance between party affiliation and personal integrity. Log Cabin stood up for LGBT families when they were under attack, even when that meant denouncing fellow Republicans. At the same time, it did what it could to make a strong case to the LGBT movement that we need to reach out to Republicans who stand with us on basic fairness.

How has Log Cabin done that?

We've weighed in, and not just in Washington, D.C., but across America. In almost every single victory on our issues, red state or blue state, you will find Republicans that were part of the formula. Most of the critical work Log Cabin does, no one ever knows about. It's the quiet, private conversations with conservatives who change their votes, it's the delivery of talking points, and people coming out in their local communities to help change hearts and minds. It's some of the most important work happening within the LGBT movement now.

Would you have done anything differently?

My biggest personal disappointment was my inability to convince the president not to support the Federal Marriage Amendment. I asked him personally at the White House not to do it. I spoke to Karl Rove and to other people around the president, and the reality was, my advocacy was not as compelling as the very strong poll numbers that showed, at least for the 2004 election cycle, that the use of the Federal Marriage Amendment as a political issue would score points in the states that mattered.

What will you be doing in your new job as head of the Gill Action Fund?

I'll be reaching out to my former colleagues to figure out how Gill Action can complement and advance the important work being done by our state and federal organizations. It is a new entity with really one basic directive: to help come up with a way to win the biggest battles facing LGBT Americans.