Lisa Keen and Lou Chibarro, Jr., in a September 18 report for The Washington Blade, a prestigious gay newspaper, write that the majority of gays, like two-thirds of the respondents in national polls, do not want President Bill Clinton to resign. They say:

"The majority of Gay people, too, would like to see Congress get back to business on the more critical affairs of state. According to a Blade survey of 149 Gay and bisexual men and women this week (reached by phone and through the distribution of questionnaires at Gay businesses), only 20 percent believe Clinton should be impeached in light of what they've heard thus far from the Starr Report. Asked if Clinton should resign, 34 percent said yes. Those percentages are more supportive than those found in polls by mainstream media outlets this week but similar. (On average, the media polls of the general population found that about 34 percent of Americans believe Clinton should be impeached. When polls ask if people think Clinton should resign, about 35 percent of Americans say yes.) Only 28 percent of Gays surveyed and 41 percent of the general population say they want impeachment hearings."

The Blade quoted a 24-year old lesbian: "Leave the man alone. This is a clear example of our society not being able to deal with our hang-ups around sexuality. We have real problems in this country that need public attention, but the president's penis is not one of them."

GayToday's senior editor, Jack Nichols, was quoted in Sunday's edition of Gannett's Florida Today:

Members of the black community too, have expressed their support for the embattled president. Representative John Lewis says he's been struck by the universality of support Clinton has received among African-Americans in Atlanta. He said: "People say, 'Take care of the President, take care of my man."

Black Georgians, Lewis told The New York Times, "don't want to see him resign. They don't want to see him impeached. They just want us to leave him alone because there's this deep feeling in the black community that this President has been there for us."

In a private letter made public, The Reverend Mel White, Justice Minister for the gay-inclusive Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, addressed a correspondent who'd expressed his unhappiness with the president:

I suppose I was naive to believe he would be more, would do more, that he would follow his heart and act with courage and integrity. Too much to ask of a President? I suppose, but it still seems reasonable to ask it. Now, however, we are faced with a difficult choice.

Gay Republican organizer Rich Tafel, director of Log Cabin Republicans, is expressing a contrary view, however. He is pondering, according to the Blade, whether to "ask for Clinton's resignation or impeachment."