Frank: Gay rights activists should be more like NRA, AARP

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) on Thursday repeated his tough call to gay marriage activists: Focus your efforts on lobbying Congress if you want to be effective.

Although Frank is the longest-serving, openly-gay House member, he has taken heat recently for suggesting the only thing last weekend's National Equality March would pressure is "the grass" on the National Mall. Many furious activists have since chided Frank as out of touch with a community he has long defended, but the Massachusetts congressman on Thursday dismissed that accusation in his characteristically candid manner.

"Let me put it to you -- I work very hard on these issues ... we`re about to have signed by the president the first bill in American history that protects gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people against prejudice in the Hate Crimes Bill," he told CNN, referencing the Employee Non-Discrimination Act.

Frank then restated his call to the march's attendants and organizers to focus their efforts on lobbying lawmakers, not staging massive demonstrations. He said in the interview they ought to be more like the National Rifle Association (NRA) or the AARP -- two "effective" organizations, he explained, that "don't have shoo-ins or shuffle-ins or anything else" to get their point across.

"When the bill is coming up they call us and write us and make us crazy, which is what an American citizen ought to do when he or she is trying to influence the legislature," he said.

"Marching isn't a negative thing, but to the extent that people think that having marched they've done something effective, they wouldn't do what is effective," Frank explained.