Bugged by Y2K.

GAY GROUPS AND AIDS GROUPS BELIEVE COMPUTER DISRUPTIONS WILL BE MINIMAL COME JANUARY 1

It has the potential to be, in President Clinton's words, "the first crisis" of the 21st century. At midnight on January 1, 2000, an unknown percentage of the nation's computers will hit a giant glitch. Reading only the last two digits of the date, they will interpret the year to be 1900, not 2000--or Y2K, as it is known--and crash with a giant thud. The Y2K bug could be a harrowing introduction to the new millennium.

So far, gay and lesbian leaders appear focused on their own goals and priorities and are prepared to let: the computer chips fall where they may next, January 1. For some, Y2K is as much the product of media hype as it is of programming. "I don't think anything is going to happen," says Betsy Gressler, deputy political director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, who holds a degree in computer science. "I cannot possibly picture a situation as (tire as some that are being painted by the media and some people."

Gressler suggests that much of the talk about Y2K tins been much ado about nothing--well, almost nothing. Even Gressler thinks organizations and companies should verify, as the task force has, that their software will work in-house and with outside vendors next January. In any event, she adds, "it's right for people to be concerned and prepared."

Indeed, other groups have set aside time to check their computer systems for any potential problems. "For the last year, we have been working on making sure all of our software and systems are compliant, so that when 2000 rolls around we won't experience any problems," says David Smith, communications director for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay lobbying group.

Officials at two AIDS organizations also look to the start of the new year with considerable--but not complete--confidence. Jim Costello, director of management information systems at the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, D.C., expects some disruption in the transfer of electronic data. For example, demographic reports the clinic provides to the local government could get mixed up. "I think that there will be some glitches with that," he says. "I think that they'll be minimal."

Whitman-Walker, which provides HIV and AIDS services, is in good shape, Costello says, partly because it developed a brand-new information system during the past year and a half. Therefore, clinic staffers did not need to go back and check bits and pieces of an older, antiquated system. He says nobody has come to him and expressed fear about getting prescriptions filled for HIV and AIDS patients. "My suspicion is that most of the pharmaceutical companies are not going to have a problem," Costello says. "I'm not as concerned as some of the gloom-and-doom people."

Another Washington, D.C.-based institution, the advocacy group AIDS Action, also recently installed a new computer network. "In many ways we are in the ideal situation," says Daniel Zingale, AIDS Action's executive director. "We just created our first full-time technical staff position a little over a year ago."

Still, Zingale does admit to some concerns. "The worst thing I can imagine actually happening is if the production of medication becomes stalled," he says. But he also assumes pharmaceutical companies have thought ahead and would overproduce before 2000 if they expected problems. "I don't see any reason for panic," he concludes.

By contrast, some conservative religious groups view the Y2K bug as potentially leading to a meltdown of society. Groups have sprung up on the Web urging believers to stockpile cash and food for themselves and their families in anticipation of widespread shortages.

But gay groups believe their more tempered concern is more in keeping with the problem and with their own relatively modest computer systems. "There certainly is attention paid to make sure that we are on the right track," says Peg Byron, spokeswoman for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a national gay and lesbian civil rights organization. On the other hand, she admits, the group is not dealing with a giant sophisticated database. Adds Byron: "It's not like we're air traffic controllers."

Moore is anew York City-based freelance writer.