Battle Sparks Hope Among Gay Activists : Reaction: Caught off guard by backlash against efforts to lift military ban on homosexuals, they are now focusing on getting their message out.

Attacked and defended as never before, the gay-rights movement endured a baptism by fire this week that left it hopeful even while underscoring its weaknesses.

The euphoria of watching the inauguration of a President who supports civil rights for gays quickly evaporated as the debate over lifting the military’s ban on homosexuals was raised to a frenzied pitch by opponents of the move.

The voices of gay activists were barely heard as Pentagon officials issued dire warnings and followers of the religious right jammed Capitol Hill phone lines to protest the proposal.

The ferocity of the opposition clearly caught gay and lesbian activists off guard, highlighting the soft spots in a movement more practiced in fighting local battles than national ones.

“We’ve never been faced with this sort of community crisis before, and it was played out on TV,” said David Smith, executive director of the Los Angeles branch of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. “The crisis obviously overwhelmed our national organizations. . . . We have definitely learned some painful lessons.”

While some activists expressed disappointment in the compromise announced Friday--many said they wished the President had tossed the military ban aside on his first day in office--Clinton won widespread praise for his tenacity this week.

“We have made significant strides in the first 10 days of his Administration--knowing the heat he has taken on this issue,” said William Waybourn, executive director of the Victory Fund, a national gay political group.

Jeff Stride, 19, of Los Angeles, agreed: “(Clinton) didn’t have to follow through. . . . He’s done more for us in a week than (George) Bush did in four years and (Ronald) Reagan in eight years.”

Although many gay activists concede the need for compromise now, they say they are not prepared to yield on an ultimate reversal of the ban.

“The real test comes six months from now,” said gay-rights advocate Thomas B. Stoddard. “Then the policy must be abrogated.”

The overturning of the military’s ban on homosexuals has taken on enormous symbolic importance for the gay movement because the ban is seen as an official stamp of discrimination. “It sets a national tone of how gays and lesbians are treated in this country, and it must fall,” Smith said.

After a flurry of press conferences in the past two days, gay-rights advocates maintain that they have begun to get their message out and intend to focus their efforts on building congressional and public support during the next six months.

“This is where all the energy needs to go, to getting the other side of the story and diffusing this hysteria,” said Lorri L. Jean, executive director of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center.

A week of television interviews in which politicians and members of the armed forces insisted that the military could not function with openly gay men and women in the barracks and showers has left the homosexual community shaking its head.

“I’ve been amazed at some of the sexual fantasies being put forth by some members of the U.S. Senate,” said the Rev. Troy Perry, a military veteran now with the Metropolitan Community Church of Los Angeles, which has a predominantly gay and lesbian congregation. “I was in those showers. I was openly gay at the time, and I did not spend my time looking over my colleagues.”

David N. Mixner, a Los Angeles gay activist and Clinton campaign adviser, said the backlash is the inevitable price of bringing a major gay civil rights issue to the national table.

“This would have happened if it was six years from now, 10 years from now,” he said. “We’ve reached a critical mass where we’re suddenly taken seriously as a civil rights movement. The consequence of being taken seriously is the backlash.

“It is exhilarating that we are perhaps close to ending 50 years of persecution and witch hunts (in the military). Yet it’s a little frightening to see the battles we face up ahead--having crossed that threshold.”