Small favors - President Bill Clinton's policies that helped homosexuals in 1998 - Abstract

Despite the Lewinsky scandal, the White House made some gains on gay issues

He was supposed to be the trophy for gay men and lesbians from a president who championed their cause. But James Hormel, nominated as ambassador to Luxembourg, never got the necessary blessing from the Senate to do the nation's bidding in the European grand duchy. President Clinton's inability to pry the appointment from a GOP logjam in the Senate shows that even on issues of ceremonial importance to gays, the White House just couldn't get its way.

With debate about impeachment still wafting through the headlines, 1998 ended as it began for the Administration: amid fallout from the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Yet whether they are defenders or detractors of Bill Clinton's sometimes duplicitous handling of the matter, gay observers agree that the resilient president broke through the turmoil surrounding the executive mansion to post some important victories for gays. They cite:

* His May executive order banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal civilian workforce and the Administration's lobbying that helped defeat an August attempt by GOP House members to overturn it.

* White House lobbying to expel two congressionally OK'd antigay amendments from the fiscal 1999 appropriations package. One, driven by Rep. Steve Largent (R-Okla.), would have banned adoptions by gays and lesbians in the District of Columbia. The second, sponsored by Rep. Frank Riggs (R-Calif.), who lost his seat in Congress this year, would have barred San Francisco from using federal funds to implement its far-reaching domestic-partnership ordinance.

* A boost of approximately $700 million in federal AIDS research, treatment, prevention, and housing funds in the 1999 budget.

* The appointment of out lesbian Karen Tramontano as assistant to the president and counselor to the chief of staff, a position just one step below Cabinet level.

* The confirmation of Fred Hochberg, an openly gay New Yorker, as deputy administrator at the U.S. Small Business Administration.

"These are very, very incremental steps," says Craig A. Rimmerman, professor of political science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y. But Rimmerman, coeditor of the forthcoming book The Politics of Gay Rights, holds out a fleeting hope that Clinton can do more in the next two years. "He's not running for reelection, and he has an opportunity to stake out his true beliefs on the issue, which I believe are generally quite supportive."

Administration insiders are both cognizant of the scandal's impact and upbeat about their accomplishments. "It's amazing that we came out of this with so little damage done," says Richard Socarides, the president's liaison on gay and lesbian issues. About the block on Hormel, he says simply, "Hormel became a target of the religious right, to whom the leadership of the Senate is beholden."

In past years gay rights backers might have held the White House accountable for such snafus. Perhaps as a sign of growing appreciation for the power of religious conservatives, more gays are now inclined to echo Socarides's circumspect tone. Says Rimmerman: "Congress has a long, long way to go on gay issues, as they made plain in jettisoning a clearly qualified nominee. The president deserves credit for pressing ahead. This is how the public gets educated on our issues."

Activists, however, see a cautionary tale in the Administration's failure to break the impasse on Hormel. "I haven't seen the community too outraged over it," says Jerry Sloan, president of Project Tocsin, a Sacramento, Calif.-based political research group that monitors the far right. "No one's been taking to the streets over it, as far as I can see." Sloan says better coordination with the gay community should still be a priority at the White House.

But don't discount symbolism either, warns Rimmerman. He cites Clinton's rapid response to the October 6 killing of Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard, possibly presaging an executive push for hate-crimes legislation in the 106th Congress. The swift and compassionate message signaled the Administration's maturation on gay issues. "And, as I told my students, a statement like that was something you wouldn't have seen from his predecessors," says Rimmerman.

The White House is still minding the store for gays, Socarides insists. During the very days that Shepard's murder consumed gay activists' attention, he says, the Administration achieved two wins that went relatively undetected: "We essentially said [congressional Republicans] will not have a budget deal if those [Largent and Riggs] items stay in. Eventually they were forced to give up."

Since passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (which would ban antigay job discrimination) is still a dream, the White House has come to rely on limited successes as a rallying cry for gay support. Small victories--including Vice President Al Gore's appearance at a September 19 dinner sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, the Washington, D.C.-based gay lobbying group--may be the best gay activists can hope for during the next two years.

But without a doubt, all the Administration's gains will seem bittersweet if, in his final two years, Gore's boss is unable to secure passage of hate-crimes legislation or a gay civil rights bill. Without that kind of landmark legislation, Clinton's compromise position on gay men and lesbians in the armed forces, which he helped hammer out in 1993, may become the Administration's most lasting gay legacy of all.

Johnson, coauthor of The New Members of Congress Almanac (1997-1999), writes about religion and politics from Washington, D.C.

RELATED ARTICLE: Elaine Noble on Tammy Baldwin

The first openly lesbian candidate to win statewide public office, former Massachusetts representative Elaine Noble talks to The Advocate about the election of Tammy Baldwin, the first openly lesbian candidate to win a seat in the U.S. Congress:

"To say it's nice is an understatement. I couldn't be happier for our community or happier for her. I think she'll be a bright, shining light. I'm so proud I'm even in the same line of history. She represents to me a milestone in how sophisticated we've really become. She deserves all of our care, support, and money. If I have any advice to her, it's `Don't sweat the small stuff because it's all small stuff.'

"I'm glad I'm still around and standing upright to see it. I often tell people I feel like one of the oldest living lesbian grandmothers in the world. This is proof of that I couldn't be prouder of the baby."

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