GLBT rights activist pulls back on the `T`

Robin Bodiford is not "The Man."
For one, she's a lesbian whose law practice almost exclusively  represents gay clients. She spearheaded groundbreaking ordinances in  Broward County to protect gay rights and allow same-sex couples to  register as domestic partners. When the only county commissioner who  voted against both ordinances, John Rodstrom, received an award from the  Gay and Lesbian Community Center in Fort Lauderdale, she staged a  one-woman walkout.

In other words, she has devoted her life and career to sticking it to the you know who.
But now Bodiford finds herself in the most unlikeliest of roles. As a  small but strident band of activists lobbies to add legal protections  for transgender people to the county ordinance, Bodiford is pulling  back.
Here's why: She and other political veterans fear that adding "gender  identity and expression" to the ordinance will jeopardize hard-won  rights already on the books. With three countywide elections looming in  2008 -- the presidential primary on Jan. 29, the Aug. 26. primary and  the Nov. 4 general election -- gay-rights opponents would have three  opportunities to get a repeal on the ballot.

On Wednesday, Bodiford and political consultant Richard Giorgio  booked a room at the Gay and Lesbian Center to sound the alarm. Let's  wait until May to add transgender to the ordinance, they said, to keep a  potential repeal at bay until at least 2010.

"We've always proceeded carefully and slowly to make sure that when  we fight for our rights, we keep those rights," Giorgio said. ``It makes  little sense to secure transgender protections only to watch them get  repealed six months later."
They have reason for concern. The domestic partnership ordinance,  which allows same-sex partners to secure hospital visitation rights like  married couples, weathered a court challenge.
The ordinance that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation endured two petition drives aimed at repeal.

"You think after all the years that I could sit idly by and watch  everything I worked for crash and burn without at least attempting to  allow the greater gay and lesbian community know how their rights were  being risked?" Bodiford asked.

She may be overreacting. Miami Beach and other South Florida cities  have added transgender protections without a backlash. A group organized  to beat back a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage has  raised more than $1 million, reflecting the gay community's fundraising  and organization prowess.

At the meeting, about 10 people who favor the transgender amendment  filed into the back of the room and tried to take over the microphone.  Transgender people typically dress in the style of the opposite gender  than they were born and may seek medical treatment to change their  gender.

"Let them speak!" shouted AIDS activist Michael Rajner. ``You've silenced them long enough!"
A tall woman dressed all in black took the floor.
''How dare you deny me my rights?'' demanded Tiffany Arieagus, an AIDS counselor well known in the local drag queen circuit. ``What about  me?''

Bodiford was shaken. ''I'm not here to be your enemy,'' she said.

Step back and see what has happened here. The lesbian activist is  no longer the radical agitating for change. Now she's the one  controlling the microphone and representing the political establishment.  Now she's ``The Man.''

And perhaps in some strange way, this is progress.