PRESIDENT COULD HAVE GIVEN PRACTICAL ADVICE

It is unquestionably a milestone: "In a nod to the budding political clout of the gay-rights movement," reads the Associated Press story recounting the event, "President Clinton was speaking Saturday night at a fund raiser for the nation's largest lesbian and homosexual group -- the first president to appear before such an audience."

It is quite possible to oppose any harsh treatment for our homosexual neighbors and still not find ourselves among those trendies cheering this development. The attitude of most Americans today is one of benign tolerance for those who adopt this lifestyle, but subscribing to the agenda of this particular human rights campaign is major step beyond what most Americans are prepared to endorse.

Few were the mainstream media accounts that listed some of the more radical portions of that agenda. They include mandatory protections for gays in teaching and Boy Scout leadership positions, for instance. In many parts of this movement, there are knowing winks and nods about adult recruitment of young boys into this particular lifestyle.

Beyond this, if an American president were to go, he might have used the occasion to lecture the assembled gays on hygiene. This is treated as though it were a taboo subject. It is nevertheless a vital one for a male population whose fantastic promiscuity yields a grim fact: The average age of mortality for male homosexuals in the U.S. is 41.