The way they were: in praise of Streisand

Forget the tired talk about her perfectionism. Time to begin a new buzz about Barbra Streisand: She’s patient. No, make that infinitely patient.

The superstar not only endured a demanding walk along the red carpet -- where, so politely, she begged a phalanx of shouting photographers to allow her to gather herself after each portrait -- but she sat, Queen of Composure, as she listened to speech after impassioned speech at the Human Rights Campaign’s annual gala until, finally, she was presented with a Humanitarian Award at nearly 11 p.m.

What did she say from the stage? Not a word about the interminability of it all -- which, thankfully, was punctuated with surprise appearances by a luminous Liza Minnelli, a gaga John Travolta and the first gay couple to be married in San Francisco, the honeymooning 79-year-old Phyllis Lyon and 83-year-old Del Martin. She simply thanked the predominantly gay crowd that had come to honor her along with Storyline Entertainment’s Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and Bienestar Human Services. “I have been fortunate to receive a few awards in my life,” she said, standing before 1,700 guests, including husband James Brolin, son Jason Gould and Janet Jackson. “I always appreciate them. But this one tonight is very special to me, because the gay community has supported me from the very beginning. This is a challenging moment in your history.... You are on a front-line struggle for human rights, even as continued prejudice stands in the way.”

Introduced in a filmed speech by New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who praised her philanthropic outreach in the areas of “women’s rights, peace and disarmament, civil liberties, the environment, gay and lesbian equality and the fight to rid the world of HIV/AIDS,” Streisand was presented with the award by Travolta, her good friend. “Where’s my girl?” he asked, peering into the audience. “Oh, there you are. Hi, darling! I love you!” he gushed as she smiled up at him. “Recently, I looked up the definition of ‘humanitarian’ in the dictionary, and I found a picture of Barbra Streisand.” Hoots and applause. “You would deserve this award for your artistry alone,” he continued. “I put on your music ... and for some reason your voice and your interpretation of a song hits a frequency that sends a message right to my soul and I start to weep. I’m sure that all of you have had that experience.”

Minnelli, who’d flown in from New York for the gala, presented the campaign’s Corporate Award to Zadan and Meron, whose productions have ranged from television’s “Serving in Silence: The Margarathe Cammermeyer Story” to the hit film “Chicago.”

“With ‘Chicago,’ they were the first to win a best picture Oscar for a musical in 34 years,” said Minnelli, who in an aside said she planned to team with the duo for an “original film musical.” But most important, she added, “they honor gays and lesbians by bringing them out as real people” in their productions.

Setting the tone for the March 6 event at the Century Plaza Hotel, which was fired up by President Bush’s call for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, Human Rights Campaign President Cheryl A. Jacques, a former Massachusetts state senator, called on the crowd to be aware that “this is our moment in time ... the marriage moment.”

“Many of us have spent our entire lives being told we’re not equal by people as close to us as our own families,” she said. “And at its heart, this moment is not so much about marriage as it is about equality.”

The Human Rights Campaign is organizing a multimillion-dollar effort to “stop the federal constitutional amendment, to stop the attack on the state constitutions and to elect a president who won’t use the U.S. Constitution for political gain,” Jacques said. “We are running a marriage war room that goes around the clock, building our proactive strategies.”