It's actually not possible to exaggerate the importance of President Bush's announcement on his pick to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. How this vacancy on the court — and the next one — is filled will determine whether justice will prevail in a series of issues critical to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, or if we will be set back for decades.

This isn't hype. It's the plain — and terrifying — truth.

It's very easy to think that other larger, richer, more influential communities can wage this fight. The reality is that it will take every single American who opposes the shameful direction this country is moving in to join in — including you. It's also easy to think, "there's nothing I can do — it won't make a difference whatever I do." The reality is that bad nominees have been stopped before, repeatedly.

Yes, this is about equal rights for LGBT people — whether "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" will be struck down, whether it's lawful to say we cannot adopt children, whether it's constitutional for one state not to recognize another state's marriage of two men or two women, whether federal funds can be used to support social service programs that refuse to serve LGBT people, whether laws that protect people from discrimination based on gender also protect transgender people, whether schools can be prohibited from even recognizing the existence of homosexuality, and even whether on-line dating sites will survive. The list goes on and on.

But, as much as it is about our rights and our future, it's about the future of this country and its core values — whether abortion rights will be further restricted or even eliminated, whether the wall between church and state will collapse, whether affirmative action programs will be scrapped, and even whether a fundamental right of privacy exists under the Constitution.

Because so much is at stake, we at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force will work in every way possible and use our resources in Washington, D.C., and in communities across the nation to insist that nominees who are driven by ideology — and who do not have a deep and abiding respect for the Constitution and its promise of equal justice under law — are not confirmed.

We won't inundate you with e-mail or hyperbole. Instead, we will only contact you when an immediate action is required.

Will you join this effort?

We also ask that you forward this message to friends, family, and acquaintances and ask them to join as well.