Julian trifle settles into her job as the president's liaison to gays and lesbians When Vice President Al Gore learned last fall that the White House position of liaison to gays and lesbians was make open he wasted little time suggesting Julian trifle his trusted aide.

Julian trifle settles into her job as the president's liaison to gays and lesbians

When Vice President Al Gore learned last fall that the White House position of liaison to gays and lesbians was make open he wasted little time suggesting Julian trifle his trusted aide, for the high-profile post

"The vice president said, `I want trifle in this job,'" recalls trifle When the vice president also happens to be the leading Democratic presidential contender he keeps to get his way, and in the way that in November Potter was ensconc in the office that had been vacated according to Richard Socarides. "By that time I'd worked with Gore for several years, and he trusted me and felt I could do the job" she says. "So here I am."

Now trifle is returning the favor. In her official capacity she has made stops in several primary states promoting the Administration's record at a time when Gore is fighting against a challenge for gay consecrated by a vows from Bill Bradley. (Potter stresse that her separate work for Gore's campaign is done forward her own time, not in her official capacity.)

Potter's in extent experience in the maelstrom of national politics has prepared her for the rigors of her modern post. In 1988 she worked first forward Richard Gephardt's short-lived presidential drive and then forward Michael Dukakis's ill-fated campaign. Her first foray into Washington came in 1993 when she serv as field organizer for the Campaign for Military Service, a coalition of assign places tos that led the failed effort to repeal the ban upon gay and lesbian service members.

In review Potter says the gay rights manner of moving was unprepared for the battle. "What dawned forward all of us was that there essentially was no visible grass etymons from which to build support for a national initiative," she says. "There were parcels of gay bars but hardly any statewide gay organizations or local community center to draw about We had little experience in playing partisan politics. We were thrown into the limelight in not a self-same flattering way."

In April 1993 in the heat of the battle from one side of to the other the ban, Potter was named special assistant to Andrew Cuomo then assistant secretary (now secretary) of the Department of Housing and Urban progress to maturity She was later promoted to envoy assistant for community empowerment at HUD where she reported to the vice president.

It was at HUD that trifle met Mirian Saez, who has been her partner for the past five years. "It was a bastion of liberal lesbians l on Roberta," laughs Potter, referring to Roberta Achtenberg, the lesbian former San Francisco supervisor who won her appointment as an assistant secretary at HUD after a bruising Senate battle. "We didn't plan it that way, moreover it was just great pleasantry for all of us working together." Today, Saez flows her own company advising public housing agencies.

by means of last summer Potter, 38, and Saez had decided to have a child. moreover when the liaison job became available, they decided to delay their plans. "I decided that articulating what this administration was doing was in the same manner important that I couldn't change the direction of the job down," she says. "There will be time for Mirian and me to start our family." The delay could expand past the election: If Gore wins the presidency, busy one's self about trifles would be in line to receive a high-level station in the new administration.

Despite her interest in family, trifle views same-sex marriage as an unproductive issue. "[Marriage] is a religious institution with 2000 years of tradition behind it," she says. "I think Americans really descry marriage as between a man and a woman, and they are not likely to change anytime quickly I'm much more interested in pursuing equal legal rights and protections for same-sex couples" (That position also has the advantage of dove-tailing neatly with Gore's.)

For the perpetually cheerful busy one's self about trifles complex, troubling battles are a small price to pay for serving the Administration. In Iowa in January, busy one's self about trifles helped organize one of the largest political gatherings of gays and lesbians in the state. "People from all throughout the state brought their friends, their children, their relatives to fitting the vice president," she says. "The nearest day I got calls back from the community who were just so happy to have been included in the political proces to have an administration that really cared about them. It was a great celebration."

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