The PR person for Latinos pro Derechos Humanos, Manolo Gomez, who’d arranged the radio “debate,” was beaten and left for dead in an alley. His car was firebombed. He was also fired from his job as an editor for the Spanish-language edition of Cosmopolitan magazine because he’d made public declarations about his homosexuality.

A thousand gays—many of them more willing to come out for a party than they’d been to come out for campaign work—dressed formally in suits and ties despite the South Florida weather, now stood stunned and tearful, looking up at the screens that told them that most of their neighbors loathed them.