Subject: Rotello column-Clinton let-down
From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 1995 10:57:24 -0400

New York Newsday - Thursday, June 15, 1995
FAIR-WEATHER FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES
by Gabriel Rotello

	New York - For twelve years gay men and lesbians watched as Presidents
Reagan and Bush used the power of the presidency to promote a thoroughly
antigay agenda. Now, having fought to elect President Clinton, what a
disappointment it is for us to watch as he consistently fails to use his
power to support gay rights. 
	The latest example of Clinton's spinelessness is his administration's
decision not to file a brief in the Supreme Court opposing Colorado's
Amendment Two. That initiative, banning all laws in Colorado protecting
homosexuals from discrimination, was overturned by Colorado's highest court,
which ruled that it restricted the rights of gay people "to participate
equally in the political process." Colorado appealed to the Supreme Court,
and the forthcoming decision will have supreme consequences for gay rights
well into the next century. 
	Conservatives have learned that initiatives like Amendment Two can
effectively tie the gay movement in knots, forcing us to devote vast amounts
of time and money simply to defending our most basic civil rights, diverting
us from fighting for things like the right to legally marry, to abolish
sodomy laws that criminalize gay people generally and to find a cure for
AIDS. If the Supreme Court upholds Amendment Two, antigay forces will
continue to force such initiatives onto the ballot, even in states where they
have already been defeated by the voters.  
	That's why this decision is so crucial. When cases of similar importance to
conservatives went before the Court, Reagan and Bush never hesitated to throw
the weight of their administrations into the fray. But the Clinton
Administration has chosen to sit this battle out. Attorney General Janet Reno
says the reason is not political but legal; there is no federal statute
involved, thus no reason for federal involvement. But articles in the
Washington Post and elsewhere have detailed an intense debate raging within
the administration over whether to get involved in this case - a debate
centered purely on politics. Some officials argued that the president needs
to shore up his gay base. Others countered that since gays have no
alternative to Clinton in 1996, the president can ignore them to curry favor
with the large bloc of noncommitted voters. 
	Apparently that second argument won. But the belief that gays will have no
place to go in 1996 presupposes we'll be in the voting booth in the first
place. In fact, many may just stay home. After all, it takes a certain
motivation to go to the polls. The desire to avoid the greater of two evils
may motivate some, including me, but for lots of others a bit more
inspiration is needed, a feeling that when you vote for your friends, they
reciprocate.  
	Clinton hardly reciprocated when he abandoned his pledge to let gays serve
openly in the military. Or when he proposed eliminating the federal AIDS
housing program. Or when he decided against an executive order banning
anti-gay discrimination in all federal agencies. Or when he encouraged former
Portland police chief Tom Potter to withdraw his nomination for an important
Justice Department post because conservatives perceived Potter as too
pro-gay. Or when he decided against nominating James C. Hormel for an
ambassadorship because Hormel is openly gay. Or when he fired Joycelyn Elders
for talking honestly about safer sex. 
	And he hardly reciprocated when he decided to let gay people argue without
presidential support, in the most important gay civil rights case in a
decade. Especially in front of an unsympathetic court, which all but pulled
the plug on affirmative action this week.
	Clinton apparently thinks that gays will be satisfied with occasional
symbolic acts, like his appointment this week of a (heterosexual) liaison to
the gay community, but that in general there's nothing he can do to lose the
gay vote. A lot of gay men and lesbians who campaigned for him back in 1992
tell me that, as far as they're concerned, there's nothing he can do to win
it back.    
	
Copyright 1995 - Gabriel Rotello
(Gabriel Rotello's column appears in New York Newsday every Thursday. His
email address is [email-masked])