ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN

Spotlight

Like many senior aides at the White House, Sean Maloney keeps a picture of his family on his desk. But it's a picture that might not be welcome a year from now: the 33-year-old Maloney lives with his male partner, 37-year-old designer Randy Florke, and their adopted 10-year-old son.

So far George W. Bush refuses to meet even with conservative gay leaders from his own party and implies that gay people need not apply for jobs in his White House. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton and Al Gore have made room for people such as Maloney, who, as staff secretary, is gatekeeper for all written material going to and from the president.

In 1997, when Maloney completed the adoption of his son, a neglected child of two drug addicts with AIDS, his boss approved. "Since when has anybody gotten a letter from the president of the United States saying, 'Dear Mr. and Dear Mr.: Congratulations on your adoption,'" Maloney recalls.

Maloney believes the presence of openly gay people in the Clinton administration has had a substantive as well as a symbolic effect. "When the president talks about bridges left to cross in the fight for civil rights, he talks about sexual orientation," Maloney says. "That wasn't a given for a southern governor with a New Democratic agenda." —DEE DEE MYERS