Gay Rights Leaders Meet President in Oval Office;
White House Tries to Play Down Session
April 17, 1993, Saturday, Final Edition
By Ann Devroy, Washington Post Staff Writer

President Clinton yesterday met with gay rights leaders in an unprecedented session the administration tried to play down, reflecting both the change Clinton has brought to the White House and the political caution with which he pursues it.

The session with the eight men and women, who include organizers of the march on Washington for gay and lesbian rights next Saturday, was to them rich in the symbolism of the historic change of the 1992 election. Three years ago, a handful of gay rights organizers were allowed into a Rose Garden ceremony in George Bush's White House and the president was severely criticized for that by conservative groups. Bush aides later ensured it would not happen again and Republicans continued their 12-year history of excluding homosexuals from their politics.

Yesterday, it was an Oval Office meeting with the president who had openly solicited their votes and got upwards of 80 percent of them. Until yesterday, no president had met with gay leaders and certainly not in the Oval Office, the symbol of the presidency. After the session, the leaders were ecstatic. "This is a man who gets it," said Torie Osborn, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "He gets our issues, he is in there with us."

Thomas B. Stoddard, coordinator of the Campaign for Military Service, which is working to lift the ban on gays serving in the military, said the meeting was a symbol of gay and lesbian Americans moving into the mainstream. "It is the president of the United States, who, through his moral leadership, permitted it to happen," he said.

But the journey from being banned at the White House to welcome alongside Clinton was a little rocky.

The president has informed the groups he will not be available to join in their march, an event they predict will be the largest civil rights march in history, with more than a million people expected by organizers. The White House denied press requests that news photographers be allowed at yesterday's meeting and finally gave into requests for an official picture taken by the White House photographer. Until pressed, the White House did not announce the meeting, and information about it was difficult to obtain.

Was Clinton willing to meet with gays, but only if the rest of the country couldn't see it? Willing to support much of the gay civil rights agenda, but not be seen in a gay rights march? White House officials denied such interpretations. But some of the gay leaders thought that was the case, and without criticizing Clinton, suggested that caution will hurt him politically, not help him.

Clinton denied yesterday that his decision to stick with a schedule that will keep him out of town during the march amounts to a snub of the gay community. "I don't see how any serious person can say that I have snubbed the gay community," he said. "I mean no snub, but presidents usually don't participate in marches."

Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers denied that Clinton was trying to play down the meeting. "I don't think it is low-key at all," she said, calling the session "consistent" with practices followed for other sessions with groups.

But Osborn said in an interview before the meeting, "I think the president sees a cost in associating with the gay community but I believe he has already paid that cost [in votes in the election]."

"But the political cost to the president of appearing to backpedal on gays in the military, of being wishy-washy about this march, is worse. I am not a pollster. I am a gay activist, but I think it is a mistake. This is not just about politics but it is also about moral leadership."

After the session, Osborn's doubts were gone. Even though the president again declined to attend the march, he offered to work out a videotape or call-in "appearance." He told the group he may devote a speech around the time of the march to tolerance, she said.

Much of the hour-long session, Osborn said, was devoted to the issue of gays in the military and concern among gay leaders that Clinton, fearful of political backlash, will not go through with an order ending the ban on homosexuals serving in the military after he receives the Defense Department report on the subject July 15.

"He not only totally reaffirmed his decision to lift the ban," Osborn said, "but was very optimistic, very positive" about the controversial move. Clinton's original intention of immediately lifting the ban ran into a wall of opposition in the military and in Congress, forcing him to delay the change until the defense implementation study is complete. Administration officials had said the controvery over the gay issue in Clinton's first days in office had drowned out his economic message and hurt him.

Osborn and others described the session as casual, chatty, informal. "He is very comfortable with gay people, with our issues," she said. "The most interesting thing is how optimistic he is on the trend toward increasing tolerance."

This meeting was described by gay activists as part of their effort to "mainstream" their movement in the 1990s and Osborn said Clinton, as a president comfortable with homosexuals and their concerns, "roared" when she welcomed him to the "gay '90s."

GRAPHIC: PHOTO, MEETING YESTERDAY IN THE OVAL OFFICE ARE PRESIDENT CLINTON, LEFT, AND, CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT, ALEXIS HERMAN, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC LIAISON IN THE WHITE HOUSE; THOMAS B. STODDARD, CAMPAIGN FOR MILITARY SERVICE; TIM MCFEELEY, HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN FUND; BOB HATTOY, WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF PERSONNEL; KEITH BOYKIN, WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS; WILLIAM WAYBOURNE, GAY AND LESBIAN VICTORY FUND; BILLY HILEMAN AND NADINE SMITH, MARCH ON WASHINGTON COMMITTEE; ANDREW BARRER, COALITION '93; TORIE OSBORN, NATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN TASK FORCE; AND PHILL WILSON, BLACK GAY AND LESBIAN LEADERSHIP FORUM. AP