A gay-friendlier White House: while some activists say the president hasn't done enough, his outreach hasn't gone unnoticed.

Some activists say President Clinton hasn't delivered on his promises to gay men and lesbians. They point out that Clinton opposes gay marriage, that gays are still being kicked out of the military, and that he hasn't thrown his weight behind enough gay-friendly legislation. Yet when he spoke to 1,500 of the most influential gay men and lesbians in the nation at a fund-raising dinner for the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest gay rights organization, he received tremendous applause just for saying he was glad to be there.

Clinton made history not for what he said but for simply showing up. He became the first sitting U.S. president to address a gay organization, and that gesture spoke volumes to a community that has been ignored by previous administrations. "I want this to be a country where every child and every person who is responsible enough to work for it can live the American dream," the president said. "If we're ever going to build one America, then all Americans have to be part of it. "

"Clinton is the champion political sweet talker of all time," says Larry Sabato, a professor of political science at the University of Virginia. "So his speech to the HRC was nothing particularly unusual, except that it was aimed at a constituency group that is particularly grateful to be acknowledged because of its history of oppression."

Beginning in September, after almost five years of equivocation, the Clinton White House made a series of overtures to gay men and lesbians:

* Vice President Al Gore made a positive reference to the sitcom Ellen, which features an openly lesbian character.

* The White House announced several appointments of gays to senior administration posts, including Virginia Apuzzo, assistant to the president for administration and management; M. John Berry, assistant secretary for policy, management, and budget at the Department of the Interior; James Hormel, ambassador to Luxembourg; and Fred Hochberg, deputy administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Berry's appointment has been confirmed by the Senate; the nominations of Hormel and Hochberg await Senate action. Apuzzo's appointment did not require Senate confirmation.

* Clinton hosted the White House Conference on Hate Crimes, at which he promised to make fighting antigay violence a national priority.

Still, gay activists have reason to be wary: The White House has disappointed them repeatedly. Chief among the differences were Clinton's decision to back down on his pledge to lift the military's ban on gay and lesbian personnel and his signing of legislation banning same-sex marriage. Activists were also angered by the Justice Department's decision not to file a brief asking the Supreme Court to overturn Amendment 2, Colorado's antigay ballot measure that was struck down by the high court anyway.

But at the HRC dinner, at least, all was forgiven. "Because our needs were almost as great as our expectations, it was inevitable that we -- you and this community -- would experience both shared disappointment and some disagreement, "said Elizabeth Birch, HRC's executive director, when she introduced Clinton. "But, Mr. President, you have played a brave and powerful and indispensable role in the march toward justice for us." Clinton responded with a rousing speech, calling for a redefinition of "the immutable ideals that have guided us from the beginning" to include tolerance of gay men and lesbians and for passage of federal gay rights legislation because such discrimination "is wrong. And it should be illegal."

During the limousine ride to the HRC dinner, Apuzzo, one of Clinton's 18 top aides, spoke with Clinton about the state of gay politics. "When I said to him that people from all over the country had called me to say what a historic event it was, the president said, It's the right thing, I want to do it, and I'm glad to do it,'" says Apuzzo, who is widely considered one of the founders of the modern gay rights movement. "There was no trepidation."

Before joining the Clinton administration, Apuzzo, 56, worked in a variety of high-level appointed positions for former New York governor Mario Cuomo, a longtime gay rights supporter. From 1982 to 1985 she served as executive director of the National Gay Task Force in New York, which would later move to the nation's capital and add and lesbian to its name. From 1980 to 1985 she was also executive director of the Fund for Human Dignity, a now-defunct group that was tied to the task force.

Shortly after Clinton's speech The Advocate spoke to Apuzzo in her cavernous office in the Old Executive Office Building, situated next to the White House. An activist for almost three decades, Apuzzo is unmatched in her qualifications as an authority on the state of gay rights.

You've come a long way. How did you get your start in gay politics?

It was 1970. I cut my teeth with Lesbian Feminist Liberation, the Gay Academic Union, and the Manhattan, New York State, and National Women's political caucuses. I was teaching urban education at Brooklyn College. I wasn't a radical, but I appreciated being schooled in the politics of the time.

You grew up in a very traditional italian Catholic family.

For years my mother wouldn't talk to me because I was a lesbian. But I knew I was a homosexual -- that's the word they used in those days -- when I was an early adolescent, 12 or 13, growing up in the Bronx. When I realized I was in love with Lucy, that's when I knew I was a lesbian. I was in a convent from the time I was 26 until the time I was 29. I joined because I didn't want to go to [San Francisco's] Haight-Ashbury [district] and drop acid like a lot of '60s activists. I knew that I would have to make a living with my mind, and I didn't want to endanger that with drugs.

It was also a fabulous era for the Catholic Church. Issues of economic justice were the fulcrum of Catholic philosophy. The church leadership supported fighting for oppressed people. I have always retained a close sense of religion in my life. Frankly, I didn't think redemption was possible for homosexuals at the time. When I left the convent, like a lot of women, I came out. I was fortunate that it coincided with Stonewall and the feminist movement. Today, I am convinced that if I go to hell, it ain't going to be because I'm a lesbian but because of some deficiency in my character. Certainly not because I happen to love women.

How did you become involved with the National Gay Task Force?

In 1976 I volunteered to coordinate the effort to get a gay and lesbian plank in the Democratic Party platform. In 1980 we got the plank, and I took a leave from Brooklyn College to campaign for Jimmy Carter. Then I was named executive director of the Fund for Human Dignity. While I was there we funded the country's first antiviolence group.

That's why it was so rewarding for me to watch the way the White House Conference on Hate Crimes included sexual orientation. That was the culmination of a lot of work for many people. It was clear then that Americans could see the injustice in the way gay people were treated when they were confronted with gay bashing. I knew Americans, even if they were not necessarily enlightened, would not want to see gay people bloodied on the streets any more than they wanted to see African-Americans hosed down by police for protesting. Eventually I became executive director of the task force as well.

How would your work be different today had Cuomo, who flirted repeatedly with running, become president instead of Clinton?

I'd like to think I would still be right here in the White House. [Laughs] Actually, I don't think a traditional liberal approach like Cuomo's, in conservative times, would have won the White House. But there is one way it might have been different: If I were as close to President Cuomo as I was to Governor Cuomo, I wouldn't have had him take up the military fight. I would have picked up the phone and said, "This is not a battle you want to fight now. There are so many other things on the lesbian and gay agenda. " But I don't want to be a Monday-morning quarterback. We forget sometimes: There is a whole world out there that doesn't understand gay people. It is our job to educate them, not just the president's job. That has been true in every step of this movement. We know we have the right to serve in the military, but we don't live in a world in which you just say, "It's my right, " and someone comes down and hands it to you.

What's your assessment of the state of the gay right movement at the moment?

Every movement needs people in the streets communicating a strong message. But they also need national organizations to work with the political establishment. The problem right now is that we need to have a greater articulation of exactly what our agenda is. I know hate crimes figures into the agenda, I know ADDS does, the military, marriage. But where and how do these fit together? The movement's positions are not being articulated very well. People work best when they have a sense of working toward a goal. It would not hurt for us as a movement to have a discussion about our priorities right now.

What will the future of the gay rights movement hold?

The first thing people have to do is believe we are going to win. We are going to win. The right wing is going to lose this struggle. They are people who resist the historical arc of justice. History moves toward convergence, toward progress. These people are holding up elements of yesterday, which is a doomed strategy.

I'm convinced that, ultimately, people will realize that antigay activists are hateful and reject them. But at the same time, we have to remember how young our movement is and to have patience -- lots and lots of patience.