‘92 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION : Gays Say They’ve Gained a Place in U.S. Politics : Convention: With their agenda worked into the Democratic platform and a strong backer in Clinton, many see the New York gathering as a watershed.

For the gay and lesbian movement, the 1992 Democratic National Convention will go down as nothing less than a watershed, a gathering where homosexuals believe they finally forged their place in the political mainstream.

Their agenda was largely incorporated into a party platform that staked out moderate positions on many other fronts. Their convention caucus was more than 100 strong--and grew during the week as four delegates openly proclaimed their homosexuality and joined up. And, most powerfully, for the first time a gay man with AIDS and an openly lesbian woman spoke to the convention in prime time--gestures that once would have been unimaginable because of the backlash it might have sparked.

Amid the euphoria of their new-found prominence--and apparent acceptance--some gay leaders compared their progress to the breakthroughs blacks achieved with the integration of the military in 1951 and passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

“We are at a defining moment in gay and lesbian civil rights in the integration of our issues into the mainstream of American politics,” said Robert F. Bray, spokesman for the nonpartisan National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. “It’s the new face of gay politics.”

A dramatic reason for the movement’s great leap forward--and potentially its major beneficiary--is Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton.

Gay and lesbian leaders said this week that the Arkansas governor, a longtime gay-rights supporter, “gets it.” They point out that, unlike political leaders of the previous generation, Clinton has openly gay friends and has lost some of them to AIDS.

In contrast to Clinton’s effort to put some distance between himself and other traditional Democratic constituencies, he welcomed the gay program early in his campaign. And the goal of gay leaders as they leave New York is to turn out millions of votes for him in November--support that could prove crucial in California and other key states.

This could, of course, prove a double-edged sword. The Democrats’ endorsement of homosexual rights--including repeal of the ban against gays serving in the military--may provide fodder for President Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle, especially if they pursue a “traditional family values” campaign theme.

“Undoubtedly there is some downside when you embrace constituency groups that some take to be social pariahs,” said San Francisco County Supervisor Carole Midgen, a Clinton delegate and co-chair of the Lesbian and Gay Delegate Caucus.

Activist Bray is blunter about the way gays may be perceived by some traditionalists: “We’re the new communists. We’re the new threat to traditional American values--to American patriotism and society.”

But, initially at least, the Bush campaign has played down the significance of the large role gays and lesbians assumed at the Democratic Convention.

“I don’t expect that the President is going to ‘use’ any of these issues against . . . Clinton,” said Tony Mitchell, deputy press secretary for the Bush-Quayle campaign. “What the President is going to do is to define where he differs with Gov. Clinton.”

Mitchell noted that Bush, along with vowing that gays and lesbians are not barred from his Administration, had signed anti-hate crime legislation. At the same time, Mitchell reiterated that Bush “is a supporter of two-parent traditional families” and backs a continued ban on military service by gays and lesbians.

The Democratic platform, in addition to calling for an end to that ban, proposes adoption of a federal gay and lesbian civil rights bill and the marshaling of greater federal resources for AIDS prevention, research and treatment.

Gay leaders say that such commitments have made the Clinton campaign “a cause” for many in the homosexual community.

David Mixner, a senior Clinton adviser and longtime gay activist from Los Angeles, said that homosexuals have raised $700,000 for the Democratic candidate--putting them behind only the Jewish community, the entertainment industry and environmentalists among big givers.

It is difficult to gauge the number of gay and lesbian registered voters nationwide. But movement leaders estimate the figure to be at least 9 million.

“We’ve thrown away our job descriptions and reassigned staff to the task of educating our members about Bill Clinton’s record and program,” said Gregory King, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign Fund, a Washington-based public interest lobby for the gay movement that has a staff of 40 and a budget of $5 million. “Bill Clinton not only asks for our support, he’s earned it.”

King said Ross Perot’s announcement Thursday that he will not launch an independent candidacy further clarifies the choice. Although Perot sparked an outpouring of anger within their community when he said he would not appoint homosexuals to top-level Cabinet posts, he recently sought to repair his relations with gays and lesbians.

In past presidential elections, there has been no evidence that the gay and lesbian community voted as a bloc. Individuals tended to cast their ballots based on their pocketbooks or other issues. Their diversity is reflected by the growing number of gay Republican organizations in California.

But this year will be different, some movement leaders say. In California, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson’s unexpected veto last year of a gay rights bill outraged and mobilized the homosexual community. And nationally, the scourge of AIDS, the sudden prominence of the military issue and the talk of traditional families have all raised awareness--and the stakes, gay activists say.

“Increasingly, because so much is at stake, because so many boys have died, because we have been battered, castigated and insulted, there’s a certain degree of ‘fed-upness’ that’s going to motivate lesbians and gays to vote Democratic this year,” said gay leader Midgen.

In the past year, Midgen said, homosexuals registered 40,000 new voters in California--a quarter of the Democratic total added to the rolls during that period. The state sent 35 openly gay and lesbian delegates here.

Mixner, who has known Clinton and his wife, Hillary, for 24 years, said that the Democratic candidate’s initial commitment to many gay-related causes intensified during a 2 1/2-hour meeting with homosexuals in Los Angeles last fall. He said Clinton was clearly moved when participants talked about testing positive for the AIDS virus and being court-martialed in the military because they were homosexual.

“Every once in a while in a campaign, an issue and a candidate meet each other and a candidate becomes a champion of that issue,” Mixner said. “He feels strongly that this is the last stronghold of discrimination.”