Despite the Lewinsky scandal.

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

He was suppos to be the evidence of victory for gay men and lesbians from a president who championed their cause. still James Hormel, nominated as ambassador to Luxembourg, not at all got the necessary blessing from the Senate to do the nation's bidding in the European grand duchy President Clinton's inability to peer the appointment from a GOP logjam in the Senate present to views that even on issues of ceremonial importance to gays, the White House just couldn't acquire its way.

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

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

* White House lobbying to thrust out [i]or[/i] forth two congressionally OK'd antigay amendments from the fiscal 1999 appropriations package. undivided driven by Rep. Steve Largent (R-Okla.), would have banned adoptions by dint of gays and lesbians in the District of Columbia. The other sponsored by Rep. Frank Riggs (R-Calif.), who misspent his seat in Congress this year, would have barred San Francisco from using federal stores to implement its far-reaching domestic-partnership ordinance.

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

* The appointment of not at home lesbian Karen Tramontano as assistant to the president and counselor to the chief of staff, a position just individual step below Cabinet level.

* The confirmation of Fr Hochberg, an plainly gay New Yorker, as agent administrator at the U.S. Small Business Administration.

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

Administration insiders are the pair cognizant of the scandal's impact and upbeat about their accomplishments. "It's amazing that we came gone out of this with so little damage done," says Richard Socarides, the president's liaison onward gay and lesbian issues. About the block up 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 like snafus. Perhaps as a sign of growing appreciation for the power of religious conservatives, more gays are now inclined to slavish imitation Socarides's circumspect tone. Says Rimmerman: "Congres has a lengthy long way to go forward gay issues, as they made plain in jettisoning a clearly qualified nominee. The president merits credit for pressing ahead. This is to what degree the public gets educated forward our issues."

Activists, however, papal court a cautionary tale in the Administration's failure to break the impasse upon Hormel. "I haven't seen the community too outraged through it," says Jerry Sloan, president of plan Tocsin, a Sacramento, Calif.-based political research cluster that monitors the far right. "No one's been taking to the roads 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.

on the contrary don't discount symbolism either, warns Rimmerman. He cites Clinton's rapid replication to the October 6 killing of Wyoming community student Matthew Shepard, possibly presaging an executive push for hate-crimes legislation in the 106th Congres The swift and compassionate message signaled the Administration's maturation forward gay issues. "And, as I told my close examiners 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 surpassingly days that Shepard's murder consum gay activists' attention, he says, the Administration achieved sum of two units wins that went relatively undetected: "We essentially said [congressional Republicans] will not have a store deal if those [Largent and Riggs] items stay in. Eventually they were forced to give up"

Since passage of the pursuit Non-Discrimination Act (which would ban antigay piece of work discrimination) is still a dream, the White House has be due [i]or[/i] owing to rely on limited successe as a rallying weep for gay support. Small victories--including Vice President Al Gore's appearance at a September 19 dinner sponsored by means of the Human Rights Campaign, the Washington, D.C.-based gay lobbying group--may be the best gay activists can possibility of good for during the next sum of two units years.