This week was a huge win for the gay community, as the District of Columbia started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The District saw its first gay marriages, striking joy in the hearts of many, and anger in the hearts of a few.

But despite all this happiness, I can’t help but wonder: are our priorities in the right place? I asked the TNG staff to respond to the following question:

ENDA, DADT, SSM (same sex marriage), Oh My! With so many things to struggle for, is the queer rights movement focusing on the right things? Or will any success in any arena help further the cause in the long run? What do you think should be the priority for the queer/LGBT rights movement?

Read below to see what they had to say on the topic.

Back in February we showed you a video of gay singers Tom Goss and Matt Alber playing their anti-DADT anthem, “This Is Who We Are,” on my roof. The next day they performed the song again on the national mall and brought some discharged soldiers down with them to tell their stories. The song is getting a wide release and will helpfully continue to raise support for ending this already-reviled policy.

Dublin’s anachronistically styled rockabilly babe, Imelda May, kicks ass for a couple reasons. Most of them have to do with her snappy songs and rockabilly revival style, but she also reminds me a lot of Audrey Horne from Twin Peaks and anyone who thinks Audrey wasn’t the coolest girl on that show should just ride off with James Hurley and never be seen again.

But anyway — Imelda was nice enough to give us a couple minutes of her time when she was in DC yesterday opening for Jamie Cullum at the 930 Club. I haven’t watched The Oscars in years, but even if I did I would’ve gladly skipped for this one.

This week, same-sex couples got to start filing for marriage licenses. Even more awesomely, Hello Cupcake decided they would give free cupcakes to the first 200 hundred couples in line to pursue wedded bliss. Guess who wasn’t in that line? Me. Apparently my girlfriend thinks it is dumb to get married for free cupcakes. Clearly, I disagree and am also still a bit bitter. But the good news is that everyone should be in a joyous, celebrating mood this week. But everyone needs some downtime, so why not check out what you missed on TNG this week?

Yesterday, queer lady musician extraordinaire Erin McKeown was nice enough to give me a couple of minutes of her time while she was in DC, at the 930 Club, opening for Ani DiFranco. Erin talks about coming out professionally, how it has(n’t) influenced her sound and the way that people live in the shadow of Ani DiFranco.

The Friday Staff Survey has been on hiatus for a while, but it’s back with a special DC Gay Marriage Wednesday Edition. This week, we asked TNG contributors the following question:

As federal tacit approval of DC’s marriage equality bill is pending, what’s your opinion on marriage? Hackneyed institution? Civil right? Something else?

Feel free to leave your perspectives in the comments.

Like a combination of Abba and Bon Iver, Sweden’s Fredrik mixes harmonized hooks and bedroom lullabies to create something that I’d listen to over morning coffee and still be singing in my evening shower. The hooks and odd instrumentation of their self-titled debut, from which “Black Fur” comes, lead naturally to the more atmospheric sound of their new release Trilogi. (Source of “Omberg.”) The band was nice enough to let me film them doing these two songs at DC’s Goldleaf Studio and to provide the projector that gives the whole thing its Kermit-on-mushrooms hues.

Philly band Pattern is Movement describe their sound in the above video as “Julie Andrews in a steel mill” which is only one clue that they’re more clued in to their gay fan base than your average indies. In the above video — which I freely admit has little to do with music— the band fills us in on their life as straight bears, and several other things that one doesn’t usually hear bands talk about. These guys are great, and I hope you all get a chance to check ‘em out.

So luckily DC has managed to avoid the snowstorm that is currently pummeling the Northeast, which is great, because the most of the snow has finally melted, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s really excited to not be climbing over snow banks as I’m trying to go out this weekend. But I also kno we’ll all have our lazy moments, and why not use those to catch up on what you missed on TNG?

Remember when Weezer started to suck a couple years ago? I think by some mystical transposing process, their mojo was just floating in the ether after that Beverly Hills abomination, waiting to be snapped up by someone worthy. And there’s a chance that someone is Surfer Blood. I’m not always a fan of the abritrary fuzziness trend thats been happening in music, but these guys are quite simply a lot of fun. They were great sports about busting out the above number for us at soundcheck before their DC show the other day. So check it out, check out their single “Swim” below, and be ready to say that you watched this video before they got indie-big.