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Daniel Lastra
SOUTH BEACH (CBS4) ― The temperatures at this year's Winter Party Festival kept everyone attending the dance party warm in South Beach, but the political landscape is expected to get hot for the gay community as the 2008 election approaches.

Even though things are looking brighter for Florida's gay population after Governor Charlie Crist came into office, gay marriage and civil unions will be the hot topic of the 2008 elections. Crist's own party gave thousands of dollars in supporting a failed petition drive by Florida4Marriage.org in 2005 to put an amendment barring any kind of civil union on the ballot.

The group is now aiming for the 2008 election, but Crist has said he thinks the Republican Party should be spending its money on other things. In an article published by the Herald Tribune he said there were more important things to deal with "...like elections for example. I think that the people care about issues like insurance premiums, they care about property taxes, they care about public safety. And I think it's important that not only those of us in government, but the party focus on those issues too."

There have been other beneficial changes for the gay community outside the realm of the gay marriage issue.

"I think the governor is so much more positive than Jeb Bush," said Matt Foreman, the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF).

"For the first time Florida we have a full time staff person dedicated to AIDS-HIV in the 'MSM' (men who have sex with men) community."

Foreman is referring to men in the African American community who are not educating themselves about HIV or participating in AIDS prevention programs for fear of being labeled gay, among other reasons.

"These things don't happen without approval," he said. "That shows the priority that is being forced [by this administration] on these issues."

However, Crist has also been accused of switching sides on the gay marriage and civil unions issue, by both his Republican party and the gay community. Even though he said money shouldn't be used to push for a ban on gay unions, when he was asked in the same Herald Tribune article if he thought voters should have decided on the matter last year, he did not give a direct answer.

"We only have so much time and we have to prioritize what we put our energy into," he said.

For this reason Foreman says much more change is needed for gay rights to advance, especially because Florida4marriage.org hopes to put the same amendment banning civil unions on the ballot for 2008.

That's why behind all the fancy parties, and the thousands of smiling and tanned faces attending the Winter Party Festival, there is the goal of raising thousands of dollars for the NGLTF every year with the week-long fundraiser. This year was no exception.

Two-thirds of the money raised goes directly to local organizations such as Equality Florida, which like the NGLTF, advocate for gay rights at the local level.

Foreman said the biggest problem in Florida is the lack of awareness of the gay community's struggle, along with, "the disproportionate influence of right wing Christians and the lack of straight people of good will speaking for us."

He believes that many in the straight community spend time in comfortable settings, such as a dinner or a job with their gay and lesbian friends, leading them to believe the status quo is just fine for their gay community, but behind closed doors and in their private lives this community feels neglected and not protected by the same rights a heterosexual couple normally enjoys.

"We think our neighbors will vote our way because they like us, but most of them don't even have a clue."

He said change comes at the inter-personal level.

"The best way to do that is one-on-one conversations," he said. "It isn't fancy media campaigns that change people's minds."

On their website Florida4marriage announced that it is about 28,000 petitions short of the required total number of 611,009 to place the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment on the 2008 ballot. The legal deadline for the petition is February 1, 2008.

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