
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 25, 1993                   TAG: 9305250206
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

SENATE CONFIRMS LESBIAN

The Senate voted 58 to 31 Monday to approve President Clinton's nomination of gay-rights activist Roberta Achtenberg as an assistant secretary of housing and urban development in charge of fair housing and equal opportunity.

The action makes Achtenberg, a 42-year-old lawyer and member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the first avowed lesbian to be confirmed by the Senate for high federal office.

Virginia's Republican senator, John Warner, opposed and Democrat Charles Robb supported her confirmation.

The vote followed three days of often angry debate over charges by some Republican conservatives - vigorously denied by her Democratic supporters - that Achtenberg was likely to use her office to promote homosexual causes.

Throughout the debate, conservatives accused Achtenberg of leading a campaign to deny United Way money to the Boy Scouts and get the San Francisco city government to withdraw public funds from the Bank of America when the bank continued to support the Scouts. They said her conduct displayed an intolerance unsuited for the office for which she was nominated.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., defended Achtenberg as fully qualified for the job and contended that her critics were using the Boy Scouts issue as a "smoke screen for disapproval of her private life," which Boxer said should not be a factor in the debate.

by CNB