Subject: Clinton Gets Strong Support From Gays Date: Published: 10/30/92 (144 lines) Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. Politics & Policy: Clinton Gets Strong Support From Gays ---- By Jill Abramson Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal WASHINGTON -- The gay community has emerged as one of Bill Clinton's most important cash constituencies. Gay activists say the Clinton-Gore ticket and the Democratic Party have received more than $2 million from gay contributors. There's no way to document the contributions because federal election data doesn't include sexual preference. Interviews with activists across the nation disclose an unprecedented outpouring of financial support for Mr. Clinton. The money raised, if organizers are correct, would place gays in a rarefied constellation of big donors, on a par with executives from the financial and entertainment industries, who also are among Mr. Clinton's most generous backers. "There's never been anything like this," says David Mixner, a senior Clinton adviser and member of Access Now for Gay and Lesbian Equality, a Southern California group which includes big donors. The group, known as Angle, pumped about $500,000 into Michael Dukakis's campaign in 1988, but will probably raise more than $1 million for the Clinton-Gore ticket. Four years ago, according to Mr. Mixner and other gay organizers, George Bush received support, with votes and or money, from about 33% to 40% of the gay community. Mr. Clinton has been the beneficiary of heightened political awareness and activism among gays, who have been politicized by the AIDS crisis and angered by anti-gay rhetoric of the religious right. In Jersey City, N. J., last night, the Democratic nominee called AIDS "one of the most fundamental questions facing our people in the health care area," and vowed a "war on AIDS." He pledged to put a single official in charge of that effort, to step up educational efforts about the disease, to speed up approval of AIDS drugs and to increase federal funding sharply for AIDS research, prevention and treatment. Over the past decade, gays have formed their own federal and state-level political action committees, and they are leaning heavily Democratic this year. The Human Rights Campaign Fund, the largest gay and lesbian political organization in the nation, has increased its membership from less than 20,000 a few years ago to more than 60,000 today. It expects to double its contributions to sympathetic candidates, to more than $1 million this year from $500,000 in 1990, according to spokesman Gregory King. The fund has sent 21 staffers into the field to organize get-out-the-vote drives for Mr. Clinton in such key states as California, Michigan and Illinois. Just as last fall's Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings on sexual harassment provoked an avalanche of political donations from angry women to women political candidates, the Republican convention sparked its own firestorm in the gay community. Anti-gay speeches by conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan and religious broadcaster Pat Robertson prompted gays around the nation to open their checkbooks. "Support crystallized overnight with Pat Buchanan's speech," says Mr. Mixner. "It created a voting bloc and tripled the money." "The Republican convention was a five-day reminder that you aren't welcome and you don't belong here," says Steve Smith, a Californian who was the Democratic National Committee's first openly gay committeeman from 1980 to 1988. It wasn't a coincidence, says one leading Democratic fund-raiser, that the Democratic National Committee received its biggest direct-mail fund-raising response on the Monday after the GOP convention, with many contributions believed to have come from gay donors. But financial support for Mr. Clinton was building in the gay community even before the convention in Houston. In February, Angle co-chaired a fund-raising dinner for Mr. Clinton at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles with a number of other prominent Californians, including lawyer Warren Christopher and several entertainment-industry executives. Among the dinner sponsors printed on the invitation were a number of gay couples. "From the very beginning, financial support from the gay community has been instrumental," says Clinton campaign finance director Rahm Emanuel. Taking his lead from Mr. Clinton, Mr. Emanuel says the campaign made sure that gays were included as full participants in Mr. Clinton's fund-raising team. Besides Mr. Mixner, Randy Klose, the late former director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, was a member of Mr. Clinton's national finance committee. "They have sat at the table as full participants," Mr. Emanuel says. In May, Mr. Clinton appeared before the national media at a Hollywood nightclub for a fund-raising event organized by gay activists that raised more than $100,000 for his campaign -- the largest event ever held in the gay community for a presidential candidate. At the event, Mr. Clinton promised a "Manhattan Project" to find a cure for AIDS. He has also voiced opposition to the ban on gays serving in the military and supports tougher federal legislation to protect gays from job and housing discrimination. The Bush-Quayle ticket is on the opposite side of these issues. Then came the Democratic convention which featured two gay speakers, including a Clinton campaign aide who has the AIDS virus. "The Democratic convention was a reminder that door is open," says Mr. Smith. Contributions to the Democratic Party have been enhanced by money donated or raised by entertainment industry executives who have been active in the movement to combat AIDS, such as Barry Diller and David Geffen. "This election is like our national coming-out as a political force," says Mr. King of the Human Rights Campaign Fund. "It's a critical event in the history of the gay community." Tim McFeeley, the group's executive director, reports that this month members have been hosting house parties for the Clinton campaign around the country. Although he doesn't have precise numbers, he says the sums raised have been considerable. Activity in the gay community is particularly intense in Colorado and Oregon, where there are ballot measures that would restrict homosexual rights. Mr. Clinton had been under pressure from gay supporters to speak out against these measures and, during a campaign stop in Oregon last week, he finally did. ACT-UP, an organization of militant AIDS activists, has been critical of Mr. Clinton; during the New York primary campaign, he got into a shouting match with an one member. ACT-UP has criticized the Arkansas governor for not overturning a state anti-sodomy law and for insufficient state spending to combat AIDS. But any criticism of Mr. Clinton pales next to the antagonism in the gay community towards President Bush. "Gay Republicans have not been writing checks to Republicans," says Rich Tafel, president of the Log Cabin Federation, the largest gay GOP organization, which also has its own political action committee. He agrees that the GOP convention generated a "negative ripple effect." In 1988, Mr. Tafel notes, all the local Log Cabin clubs supported Bush and gave his campaign thousands of dollars. This year in Houston, the federation, which has 6,000 members, decided not to endorse a presidential candidate. --- Gay Giving Major gay and lesbian political groups that raise money or contribute to candidates through political action committees: -- The Human Rights Campaign Fund National -- The Log Cabin Federation National -- The Empire State Pride Agenda New York -- Impact Illinois -- Access Now for Gay and Lesbian Equality California [This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the personal and non-commercial use of callers to this bbs, in the hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering from the disease and others who are seeking to help them.]