A lesbian's place is in the House.

When the 106th Congress is sworn in next January, three

lesbians hope to make history by raising their right hands and

taking the oath of office. Voters will have the final say on

whether any openly gay women are sent to the House of

Representatives for the first time ever. But with the election only

nine months away, the future looks promising. "These are all

tough races, but all three are very winnable," said Kathleen

DeBold, deputy director of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund,

which raises money for gay candidates.

The most well-known of the lesbian hopefuls is Washington

State's Margarethe Cammermeyer, a retired Army colonel

who successfully fought the military when it tried to fire her over

her sexual orientation. Cammermeyer is a divorced mother and

grandmother and has lived with partner Diane Divelbess for

nearly ten years.

The Democrat expects to face

conservative Republican incumbent

Jack Metcalf in a race to represent

the northern suburbs of Seattle. Gay

activists say Metcalf's voting record

is appalling; he barely squeaked past

his Democratic challenger in the 1996

election.

Cammermeyer hopes voters will

focus on her stands on issues such as

health care instead of her sexual

orientation: "I've been a woman for

55 years, a nurse for 35 years, a

soldier for 31, and yet it's other

labels that are used to identify me.

That's very unfortunate."

Halfway across the country, state assemblywoman Tammy

Baldwin has a shot at making history twice by becoming the first

openly gay woman in Congress and the first woman

elected to Congress from Wisconsin. Baldwin, 35, has been in

politics since she was elected to the Madison-area county board

of supervisors in 1986 while in law school. She was elected to the

state assembly in 1992.

The congressional seat that covers the liberal Madison

area has traditionally been a Democratic stronghold, and the

Republican who has held the seat since 1990 is retiring. Baldwin

will face at least three challengers--all men--in the Democratic

primary; several candidates are running for the

Republican spot.

The lesbian who may face the toughest

odds is San Diego city councilwoman

Christine Kehoe. A former editor of a gay

newspaper, Kehoe was first elected to the city

council in 1993. She lives with Julie Warren,

her partner of 13 years.

Kehoe, 47, is very popular in San Diego's upscale

gay neighborhood of Hillcrest, which is part of both

her city-council and potential congressional districts.

But Brian Bilbray, the Republican incumbent, won't

be easy to beat. He has attracted significant gay

support in the past because of his moderate views on

gay rights and easily won a second term in 1996.

The San Diego Union-Tribune called Kehoe a long shot, but

she expects to win by appealing to voters on education, the

environment, and abortion rights issues. "The three of us running

is a great step forward," she said. "The community is mounting

campaigns across the nation. That's a statement as to how far

we've come over the past 20 years."

RELATED ARTICLE:

Where the boys are: Two openly gay congressmen, Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and

Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), plan to run to retain their sets this fall, according

to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund. Both men trounced their opponents

in the 1996 election. Both Kolbe and Frank came out after they were elected.

No openly gay person has ever won election to Congress as a nonincumbent.

A third openly gay man, Paul Barby, plans to run as a Democrat

for a congressional seat in western Oklahoma, according to the Victory Fund,

but he was soundly defeated by the Republican incumbent in the 196 election.

Said Victory Fund executive director Kathleen DeBold: "In Oklahoma it's

more of a liability being openly Democratic than being openly gay."