A Seriously Good Time

Megan Mullally: “The Human Rights Campaign is the world’s largest gay and lesbian organization.”

Sean Hayes: “Not counting Allan Carr’s pool parties.”

If you were in the lobby making a final bid on an autographed Doris Day glossy or taking a spinning class at Todd Tramp, you would have missed the welcoming remarks by two of the stars of “Will & Grace,” NBC’s comedy, appropriately enough, about a gay man and a straight woman who cohabitate.

The Human Rights Campaign dinner at the Universal City Hilton Hotel on Sunday may have started out light, but there was no mistaking its serious mission: enacting federal hate crime and employment nondiscrimination legislation.

The slaying of gay Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard last fall “resonated with America,” said Donna Red Wing, national field director of the Human Rights Campaign. Since Shepard’s death, “more and more people have called to ask how they can help.”

Sunday’s event was dedicated to Shepard. Eight hundred people turned out for the dinner. The group hosts 23 such events nationally each year.

The only corporation recognized for its contributions to gay rights, Wells Fargo was singled out for “being a player in the gay, lesbian and transgender struggle,” said Human Rights Campaign board member Gwen Baba. There aren’t too many corporate videos that choke you up, but Wells Fargo’s, featuring testimonials from its proud employees, hit home with the audience.

“I had tears coming out of my eyes, and I work there,” said Pam Clifford, a senior vice president.

Also front and center was Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), a tiny vision in gold lame, her hair in a French twist. Although fairly revered by the event’s attendees for defeating veteran Republican Robert K. Dornan in 1996, she shrugged off her importance.

“I don’t like gender discrimination, which I have felt, or race discrimination, which I have felt, so why wouldn’t I fight for the rights of gays and lesbians?” she asked plainly.

Cybill Shepherd presented Phil Donahue with the Family Equality Award.

“I follow Bill and Al,” Donahue mentioned proudly before dinner, ticking off the special guests--President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore--who preceded him at similar events in Washington, D.C., in the previous two years.

Donahue said his 29 years as a talk-show host gave him a front-row seat “inside the closet.” He railed against the Catholic church’s “promotion of homophobia” and drew a connection between the president’s impeachment trial and the issue of the evening.

“The president’s popularity owes not so much to his grandeur as to America’s reaction to the gross violation of his privacy,” Donahue said. “It’s gay voters who were the first victims of entrapment.”