``Not only are our votes just as valuable as others, but we are also able to organize.''

But the group still has plenty of upcoming political battles that will challenge its newfound clout. There's a proposed constitutional amendment in November to restrict the definition of marriage, and a Miami-Dade County Commission votes later this spring on whether to give spousal benefits to domestic partners.

And although the group has secured a strong place in South Florida's wing of the Democratic Party, rural Democrats are less inclined to embrace gay-rights issues.

There are also the political realities created by a GOP-dominated state Legislature that's hesitant to approve legal protections for gay and transgender residents or lift the state's ban on same-sex adoption.

''The House is so conservative,'' state Sen. Dave Aronberg, a Greenacres Democrat, told gay activists at a West Palm Beach conference last week. ``That is what's standing between Florida and the rest of the country.''

In the state Capitol, two proposed bills to provide statewide legal protections for gay and transgender residents are unlikely to move far, even in the more moderate Senate.

And earlier this year in Democrat-heavy Gainesville, a similar city law spawned hours of angry debate, barely passing.

VOTER POLL

On a national level, a Quinnipiac University Poll released last year also found that 28 percent of Florida voters would be less likely to back a presidential candidate that had support from gay-rights groups.

In just the past five years, the political atmosphere over gay issues and candidates has changed significantly, said former Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Dean Trantalis, the city's first openly gay commissioner.

When he first ran in 2003, Trantalis said, open talk about his sexual orientation contributed to a tight vote.

''I think there was a large measure of homophobia that played itself out in my election,'' he said.

Since then, the number of openly gay Florida residents has grown, and many politicians have started to focus on gay and lesbian voters as a key voting group, said Fred Fejes, a communications professor at Florida Atlantic University.

`MORE VISIBLE'

''Over the years, the lesbian and gay community has been a lot more visible and a lot more organized,'' said Fejes, whose book Gay Rights and Moral Panic: The Origins of America's Debate on Homosexuality is set to be released later this year. ``They sort of emerged as one of the significant communities and interest groups.''

The exact size -- and political influence -- of the state's gay community can be difficult to measure.

That's because the U.S. Census Bureau only counts same-sex couples, not singles. And some people are hesitant to report their sexual orientation.

But according to the most recent Census estimates, there are at least 51,000 same-sex households in the state, up from just over 41,000 in 2000. Of those, almost a third are in South Florida.

Several political victories over the past two years also have provided plenty of anecdotal evidence that the influence of gay and lesbian voters is rising.

In 2002, a conservative effort to repeal Miami-Dade's law prohibiting discrimination against gays failed. Republican U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen frequently appears in rainbow-colored gay publications in Key West.

And in recent elections, openly gay politicians like Broward County Commissioner Ken Keechl and Wilton Manors Commissioner Joe Angelo say their sexual orientation wasn't a big issue.

Also, political observers say the gay community's backing of Democratic congressman Ron Klein helped him beat incumbent Clay Shaw in a razor-thin 2006 win.

MAYOR BLASTED

Then, last year, gay and lesbian activists waged political war with Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle, after some statements Naugle made about gay sex in public places.

The Broward County Commission removed Naugle from the county's Tourist Development Council in August and this month the Fort Lauderdale City Commission ended a column Naugle had been writing for a city newsletter.

And in separate decisions earlier this year, the Broward County Commission and Miami voters approved legal protections for transgender residents.

More openly gay candidates also are finding victory at the ballot box.

There are 23 openly gay elected officials in Florida, including 16 in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, according to the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute. And more than half a dozen openly gay candidates are running for office this fall, including County Commission hopefuls in Broward and Hillsborough counties and supervisor of elections candidates in Broward and Monroe.

State House candidates Mark LaFontaine and Gary Resnick are vying for the same seat. One could become the state's first openly gay legislator.

Politicians are paying attention.

Jeff Garcia, a spokesman for Democratic congressional candidates Raul Martinez, Joe Garcia and Annette Taddeo, went to the GLBT Democratic Caucus conference in West Palm Beach earlier this month to lobby for the three Democrats facing Miami-Dade congressional incumbents this fall.

Activists told him he wasn't the only person in those races who would be looking for their support. They explained that Ros-Lehtinen, who is facing off against Taddeo, already has a voting record supporting some of the same issues, including her support for a ban on employer discrimination against gays.

Candidates ''have got to be much more aggressive,'' Jeff Garcia said.

``They've got to be much more in tune, and they have to reach out more.''