A Democrat in the White House. Demands for sweeping civil rights protections. Religious opponents working to undo a string of state-based victories. That was the backdrop in 1979 when gay rights activists staged their first national march in Washington. Thirty years later, with ...

Those 75,000 Democrats who will pack a football stadium for Barack Obama's convention speech won't be there just to whoop and holler on television. They'll form the world's largest phone bank to boost voter registration — fired-up supporters using computer targeting the ...