Broward anti-gay group braces for final siege

By Beth Reinhard
breinhard@herald.com

With six weeks to go before the signature-collection deadline for a group trying to overturn the county's gay rights law, proponents of the law are bracing for a final siege.

``There will be an influx of highly paid, out-of-state canvassers who will stop at nothing to get their signatures,'' says an e-mail by attorney Robin L. Bodiford, chairwoman of Americans for Equality: Empower Broward, which is trying to defend the existing law. ``We are fighting a highly organized, motivated and well-funded campaign.''

Equal Rights Not Special Rights must collect 62,143 signatures by Sept. 17 to put their proposal repealing the gay rights law on the ballot. The group's executive director, Lorna Bryan, won't say how many people have signed the petition so far.

Helping is a company called National Petition Management, based in Roseville, Calif. The company pays petition drive workers based on the number of signatures they collect, Bryan said.

The ``emergency response teams'' try to talk passersby out of signing and in some instances, have gotten signature collectors kicked off private property. This battle will go down to the wire.