In the spirit of the revolutionaries and pilgrims who gathered there centuries earlier, the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders met at the Old South Meeting House last night to celebrate the organization’s 30 years of activism.

“So many things have been discussed here . . . if we aren’t going to seize the time, what are we seizing now?” asked author and GLAD panelist Susan Bright.

Bright, along with GLAD founder John Ward and cultural critic and author Michael Bronski, examined the past, present and future of the American gay community with host Gary Buseck.

Founded in Boston, GLAD formed in 1978 after a series of police stings targeting gay men at the Boston Public Library led to 103 arrests. Since then, Massachusetts has become a haven for the gay-rights movement — including the legalization of gay marriage within the commonwealth.

Bright said she did not think the cultural discussion of gay rights would have any meaning today if not for activism.

“It takes a lot of integrity to stand up to those people [who] call you a monster,” Bright said.

She said the key to preventing the movement from losing ground is continuing to work toward the “inevitability” of gay marriage and acquisition of partnership rights.

“[Because of organizations like GLAD], a life that wouldn’t be possible 30 years ago is now possible for many people,” Ward said.

“The trench has been dug and there’s a war on the ground,” Buseck said.

Despite the success of three decades’ protests, the future of gay activism is still unpredictable because they have become secondary in the political arena, Bronski said.

“It’s a much safer world for queer people, but let’s not fool ourselves,” he said.

Bronski said gay rights activists could take the movement’s successful past to envision success in the future.

“We live in a world of Will ‘ Grace, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Brokeback Mountain,” he said. “We also live in a world unable to deal with sexuality and sexual existence.”