PRESIDENT SPEAKS TO GAY GROUP.Byline: Sandra Sobieraj Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. In a nod to the budding political clout of the gay-rights movement gay-rights movement, organized efforts to end the criminalization of homosexuality and protect the civil rights of homosexuals. While there was some organized activity on behalf of the rights of homosexuals from the mid-19th through the first half of the 20th cent. , President Clinton on Saturday addressed a fund-raiser for the nation's largest gay and lesbian group. ``We have to broaden the imagination of America,'' he said. Clinton's sold-out dinner speech to the Human Rights Campaign, which was greeted by a sustained standing ovation inside and pickets outside, made him the first sitting president to publicly address a gay and lesbian civil rights organization. Keeping to relatively noncontroversial territory, he steered clear of TV's ``Ellen,'' being honored by the group. Instead, he urged Congress to pass legislation protecting homosexuals from job discrimination and confirm Bill Lann Lee, his nominee as assistant attorney general for civil rights. ``What counts is energy and honesty and talent. No arbitrary distinction should bar the way,'' Clinton said. ``When we deny opportunity because of ancestry or religion, race or gender, disability or sexual orientation sexual orientation n. The direction of one's sexual interest toward members of the same, opposite, or both sexes, especially a direction seen to be dictated by physiologic rather than sociologic forces. , we break the compact. It is wrong and it should be illegal.'' He told the audience of about 1,500 that people who ``aren't comfortable yet with you'' need to learn to see lesbians and gays as fellow Americans committed to freedom and equality. ``Should we change the law? You bet. Should we keep fighting discrimination? Absolutely,'' Clinton said. ``But we have to broaden the imagination of America. We are redefining in practical terms the immutable IMMUTABLE. What cannot be removed, what is unchangeable. The laws of God being perfect, are immutable, but no human law can be so considered. ideals that have guided us from the beginning.'' White House officials billed the event as a ``community outreach'' gesture not unlike his recent participation in the National Italian American Foundation The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) is an advocacy organization for Italian Americans, the fifth largest ethnic group in the United States of America. It is based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to preserve and protect Italian American heritage and culture. dinner. ``I would just want to put this in the context of all the work the president has done this year to reach out to a variety of communities and bring people together so they can think about what they share in common, as one America,'' said White House press secretary Mike McCurry. Elizabeth Birch Elizabeth Birch (born 1956, Dayton, Ohio) is an American attorney and former corporate executive who came to Washington in January of 1995 to head the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBT organization. , executive director of Human Rights Campaign, called Clinton's record ``completely in sync'' with her group's nondiscrimination agenda. ``His presence is a powerful affirmation of the shared dream of equality for every American,'' she said. Thanking him for the first White House conference on hate crimes to be held Monday, Birch added, ``You can be absolutely sure, Mr. President Mr. President can refer to:
Christian conservatives voiced disgust at what Andrea Sheldon, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition The Traditional Values Coalition is a Christian Right organization that claims to represent over 43,000 conservative Christian churches throughout the United States of America. Headquartered in Washington, D.C. , called ``an American president
adj. 1. Not admitting of moral distinctions or judgments; neither moral nor immoral. 2. Lacking moral sensibility; not caring about right and wrong. left.'' The other featured guest at the black-tie dinner, expected to raise $300,000 for the campaign's political activities, was TV actress Ellen DeGeneres, who was accompanied by her partner, Anne Heche. With great fanfare, DeGeneres revealed last spring that both she and her title character on the ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. sitcom ``Ellen'' are gay. While anti-gay demonstrators and AIDS protesters unhappy with Clinton's record picketed the dinner at a downtown Washington hotel, White House officials played down any controversy. McCurry pre-emptively quashed speculation that Clinton would follow Vice President Al Gore's lead and embrace TV's ``Ellen'' for its bold plot line. ``That's not an area that he wants to particularly highlight,'' McCurry said Friday. Clinton left the dinner before its program turned to DeGeneres, who, along with her mother and Heche, met the president back stage and out of view. News photographers were advised in advance that there would be no opportunity to snap Clinton and DeGeneres together. Gore rankled conservatives - and surprised even some Democrats - when in a Hollywood speech last month he praised ``Ellen'' for forcing Americans to ``look at sexual orientation in a more open light.'' Both Gore's remarks and the mere fact of Clinton's address underscored the increased visibility and weight of gay-rights issues within the Democratic Party agenda. Conservatives gleefully glee·ful adj. Full of jubilant delight; joyful. glee  ful·ly adv.glee suggest that the increased visibility of gay issues, particularly legal homosexual marriage, will lead to backlash against Democrats. CAPTION(S): 2 Photos PHOTO (1--color) President Clinton stresses his administration's stance against discrimination in his address Saturday in Washington for the nation's largest gay-rights group. (2--color) TV's Ellen DeGeneres, left, and her lover, actress Anne Heche, arrive for the fund-raising dinner Saturday. Associated Press |
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