Election Gives Gays Victories, New Battles

Gay and lesbian leaders basked on Wednesday in the glow of an Election Day that handed them several victories--including a key triumph in Oregon--even while clearly signaling that the fight over gay rights will continue across the nation.

“I’m very happy today. . . . It’s like our long nightmare is over,” said David Mixner, a Los Angeles activist and senior adviser to President-elect Bill Clinton who helped marshal extensive gay support for the Democratic ticket.

Mixner was hoarse from cheering at a victory party where celebrants rejoiced over the defeat of a Republican Administration that the gay community has accused of underfunding the battle against AIDS and allying with the anti-gay religious right.

Gay leaders were also pleased that Oregon voters soundly defeated an unprecedented ballot measure that would have written a moral condemnation of homosexuality into the state constitution. The measure failed 57% to 43%.

Gay activists expressed hope that the margin of defeat would discourage similar efforts. Their biggest disappointment was the passage of a Colorado measure that overturns several gay-rights ordinances in the state and bars the adoption of any future legislation protecting homosexuals from discrimination.

Stung by the constitutional amendment’s passage by 6 percentage points, several gay groups said they were already planning legal challenges to it.

“We have every intention of filing a suit to challenge the constitutionality of that measure,” said J Craig Fong of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.

“We’re obviously going to be fighting this battle of ‘equal rights’ versus ‘special rights’ for a long time,” Fong said, referring to arguments that homosexuals want special rights when they seek anti-discrimination protections.

Underscoring his point were the mixed results of anti-gay referendums in Portland, Me., and Tampa, Fla. Portland voters rejected a proposal to overturn a local gay-rights ordinance, while Tampa voters repealed their gay-rights law.

In the presidential campaign, national exit polls of voters conducted by The Times showed that 74% of those who identified themselves as gay or lesbian voted for Clinton.

Clinton wooed the gay vote with promises to support gay rights, accelerate the battle against AIDS and lift the military ban on homosexuals.

Gay groups are getting ready to hold him to those pledges. In a policy paper released Wednesday at a news conference in Washington, a coalition of gay organizations called upon Clinton to meet with national gay and lesbian leaders within his first 100 days in office, adhere to his campaign promises, appoint openly gay and lesbian people to national office and create a Cabinet-level position to coordinate the national AIDS effort.

“We are the Clinton campaign,” said Gregory King, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign Fund.

Times staff writer Matt Marshall contributed to this story.