CLINTON VISIT IRKS S.F. MAYOR, GAY OFFICIALS.

Byline: Eric Brazil San Francisco Examiner 

When President Clinton sweeps into town today on a campaign trip, many of the city's top politicians and members of the gay community will be poised to give him something other than support - a cold shoulder.

Mayor Willie Brown, for one, in an attempt to avoid adverse political fallout from San Francisco's large gay community, plans to keep his contact with Clinton to a bare minimum and not to attend a fund-raiser at the home of Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

``I'll greet the president at the airport as a mayor should do, and then I'm going back to doing my job,'' Brown said during a brief encounter with reporters Friday.

Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who along with other city officials received a ``blanket invitation'' to attend a brief speech Clinton will give at the Presidio, said he would attend only if the president expresses willingness to sit down with representatives of the gay and lesbian community to discuss same-sex marriages.

``I feel that - with all due respect to the president - if we can't sit down and talk, I don't want to just be window dressing,'' said Ammiano, who is gay. ``We need to clear the air.''

Supervisors Susan Leal and Leslie Katz, who are lesbians, reportedly also said they would snub Clinton unless he agreed to discuss same-sex marriage.

Others in the gay community expressed their disappointment in Clinton and said they may show up to protest.

Brown last week cautioned the president that, by visiting soon after announcing his opposition to same-sex marriages, Clinton could encounter trouble with San Francisco's gay community. Clinton, however, said he would not postpone the trip.

``His (Clinton's) timing isn't good - not only because of the gay issue, but (also because) Dianne Feinstein has a problem relating to immigration,'' Brown said.