Clinton Pressed to Join Gay-Rights March : Policy: President could show a strong stand on homosexual issues. But he could also heat up a debate the White House is hoping will cool down.

Sharpening a political dilemma, President Clinton is coming under pressure to take part in an April 25 gay-rights march in Washington to demonstrate his solidarity with homosexuals who supported him in the 1992 presidential election.

The President can bolster his support from gays by an appearance that would “help educate the public,” said Andrew Barrer of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund just before Clinton aides met Friday with a group of gay-rights leaders at the White House. “This can be a celebration or a protest, depending on what the President does.”

Any such appearance by Clinton would receive enormous publicity, since organizers expect 1 million people to attend the march and five days of other events designed to focus national attention on the anti-discrimination campaign. But it could also inflame passions on an issue that the White House is laboring to cool and would occur amid the expected fireworks of congressional hearings on the role of gays in the armed forces.

White House aides, who have not decided whether Clinton will appear, have been making a concerted effort to reassure gay supporters since Tuesday, when Clinton triggered a furor by indicating he might allow gays into the military while barring them from combat and some other duties.

Clinton and White House aides have insisted the President meant only to say that he would consider whatever recommendation the military gives him.

The leader of one advocacy group said that activists are aware of the political downside that such an appearance would present for the President.

“We obviously don’t want to do anything that boxes him further, and creates more tension between the White House and the gay community,” said the activist, who asked to remain unidentified. “But it is important for him to set the context for gay rights--not just for the people who are at the march, but for everybody out there in middle America. This is something only the President can do.”

The march--officially known as the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation--is intended to win support for gay-rights legislation and increased government spending for AIDS efforts.

Participants will include some militant gay-activist groups, such as the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, known as ACT UP. But the organizers also have sought to make the program a broad-based effort and have received endorsements from religious groups, such as the United Church of Christ and the American Hebrew Congregation, as well as other organizations.

In the two-hour meeting, White House aides were urged to take other steps as well to demonstrate the President’s support for gay rights. They were urged to appoint one or several White House officials to coordinate gay issues, to name an official to oversee the nation’s fight against AIDS and to increase the appointment of openly gay officials to important sub-Cabinet positions.

Afterward, leaders of several groups described the meeting as productive. Several said that White House officials had indicated the President has no intention of limiting assignments for gays within the military. But there was disagreement among them on whether those assurances were explicit.

Alexis Herman, head of the White House office of public liaison, said the meeting’s purpose was “to reaffirm that the President is against discrimination in the military and that he said nothing this week that was different from what he had been saying.”

Asked if the President had ruled out any possibility of limiting military duties for gay personnel, she said: “I quite frankly don’t know if it’s on or off the table. The President said he will consider all of the options.”

The activists said they were given several specific pledges. They said that they were told the White House would name an official to oversee the AIDS fight within 10 days and that it was about to increase the number of openly gay nominees to high federal posts. Advocates have complained that so far only four such candidates have been nominated.

The leaders said they were also promised that the White House would overrule a U.S. Park Service decision not to allow the march to use an 11-block strip of the Mall. Park officials had indicated that they were declining applications for use of the area because the grounds need to be reseeded.

The gay rights groups include the Campaign for Military Service, the National Minority AIDS Council, the National Gay and Lesbian Leadership Fund, the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Meeting with them were Herman, of the public liaison office, and Rahm Emmanuel, White House political director.