Triantafillou of the Lavender Alliance praises Wolf for her role in the creation of Cambridge's Human Rights Commission, and for her support of domestic partnership legislation. And Wolf says she "has a definite sense that issues around gay and lesbian issues are very important to people."

But Noble argues that "if you're just your average straight liberal I don't think you understand these things on an emotional level."

There are too many "people who pay lipservice to the gay community," she says, adding that "elected officials in Cambridge tend to back off when the first level of heat is off."

The opposition she ran up against when trying to establish the gay and lesbian substance abuse treatment center in East Cambridge exemplifies the kind of treatment homosexuals often receive from the mainstream population, and from officials looking to be reelected, Noble says. At the time, all city councillors--including Wolf--opposed the plan for the hospital on the grounds that Noble had not gone through the accepted channels to obtain a permit.

Noble views herself as a free agent of positive change. She wants to serve on the council for as long as it takes to accomplish her agenda, and then get out, as she did as a legislator. Lifetime professional politics, she says, "makes you funny in the head." She does not want to lose the disattached perspective that allows her to see the quirks and flaws in progressive Cambridge that she says the "shadow of Harvard and MIT" tends to obscure.

Noble admits that it's not easy to fix a system that the majority will not admit is broken. But, she says, "People who are doing the right thing always run into opposition. I'm not afraid of running into opposition.