Gay rights is itself an important public policy issue, with strong elements of civil rights and equality. However, the political mobilization of the gay community has also raised a number of more immediate policy issues. Some of those have affected only the homosexual community, but others have had wider relevance such as AIDS research and treatment. As we noted earlier, the style of political activism invoked on gay rights issues has been less that of interest groups and more that of a movement. Still, as that movement has become institutionalized, so too have the forms of interaction between it and government.

One of the most important political milestones in that interaction occurred during the Clinton administration with respect to military service. During his first presidential campaign, Bill Clinton had advocated greater rights for the gay community and had received overwhelming support from those voters. One issue that his gay supporters wanted addressed was elimination of the prohibition against homosexuals serving in the military. Once elected, President Clinton encountered substantial resistance from the military to any change in the existing policy. military leaders defended their traditional stance of excluding homosexuals by arguing that permitting homosexuals to serve alongside heterosexual soldiers would be detrimental to morale.

The solution that the Clinton administration developed was labeled "don't ask, don't tell", meaning that there would be no efforts on the part of the military to seek out gays within its ranks so long as those individuals did nothing that was indeed detrimental to the morale or good conduct of their unit. Again, compromises are rarely entirely satisfying on issues of this sort, and this was no exception. the gay community thought that president clinton had reneged on his commitments once elected and faced with