War isn't a gay issue. (last word).

What should a gay activist group do? Here's a great example: You can organize, protest, raise money, and engage the public to protect civil rights laws protecting homosexuals. That's exactly what the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force did in Florida's Miami-Dade County last fall, helping to eke out an electoral victory on a treacherous civil fights issue. And they deserve great credit for their hard work.

Now, for the harder part: What should a gay activist group not do? Here's another great example: Go out on a limb on a nongay topic, alienate large numbers of people you need to persuade, divide the gay population unnecessarily, and devote energy and resources to a subject far, far away from the issue of gay equality. And that's exactly what NGLTF has also done by signing on to a dumb and disingenuous coalition to oppose war against Saddam Hussein's brutal and dangerous dictatorship.

Let's concede for a moment that there are honest and civil disagreements about the war among gay men and women. The salient question is, Regardless of what you think about the coming war, why on earth should a gay group take this issue on? The answer lies, I think, in a simple but often overlooked fact: The National Gay and `Lesbian Task Force is not essentially a gay rights organization. It's a far-left organization with emphasis on gay rights. Its main goal is building a "movement" dedicated to the overhaul of American society on anti-capitalist, anti-male, and anti-white grounds.

Do I exaggerate? Well, take a look at the group's recent "Creating Change" conference, an annual get-together of radical gay left-wingers. Did last year's theme concern passing gay nondiscrimination laws? Persuading the public on marriage rights? How to help gay service members? Gay immigration reform? Nah. It was titled "Building an Antiracist Movement: Working for Social and Economic Justice." It included antiracism and "anticlassism" institutes as well as one about dismantling "institutional racism." In an extra gesture that would have made Trent Lott feel right at home, the conference was in part racially segregated, with whites being barred from certain sessions because of the color of their skin. I guess we should be grateful they didn't institute separate drinking fountains.

Notice that this conference wasn't even devoted to combating racism in the society as a whole--it was devoted to rooting out alleged racism within gay ranks! If you've ever attended a major gay rights rally and found yourself puzzled as to why almost all the speakers spent their time berating gay people for being racists, be puzzled no more.

Come to think of it: What's a gay group doing campaigning against welfare reform, a Clinton achievement that has helped liberate many from the culture of welfare dependency? Beats me. But that's what NGLTF has spent a large amount of time and energy doing--largely because of their commitment to a far broader social agenda than gay rights.

There are other weirdnesses as well. In a group that boasts of its diversity, the last seven executive directors have all been women. Do you think a gay group could get away with having seven male executive directors in a row? All genders are equal, you see, But on the far left some genders are more equal than others.

It's a free country, of course, and anyone should be able to set up any political organization they want--from far right to far left. NGLTF has a perfect right to exist; and those extreme leftists who want to see their agenda promoted should be as free to join such a group as far rightists should be able to join theirs. But it's time most gay men and lesbians woke up to the radical irrelevance a few gay groups now epitomize. They represent very few of us. And by alienating so many, so needlessly, they fatally undermine the focus and moral standing of the gay cause in the broader world. For that, they should not be given an easy or even reluctant pass.