We need someone in this position who sees education as more than just academics, but as preparation for good citizenship – in a world where LGBT citizens and our children are an increasingly visible part of society.

A national commitment to LGBT-inclusive diversity programs in schools, as well as the representation of LGBT people and families throughout the curriculum, could make a significant difference in providing a safe, supportive environment for all students, and in setting attitudes they will carry through life.

Without that, the best academic programs in the world are bound to fail.

A non-LGBT person might accomplish this, too, but I think an LGBT individual would bring a special awareness and send a clear signal that such inclusion is supported from the top.

Dana Rudolph, founder and publisher, mombian.com

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Across the world, gay people are targeted for legal discrimination, physical abuse and murder by totalitarian regimes.

Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe says that gay people are “lower than dogs and pigs.”

Iranian president (and genocide inciter) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tells Americans that gay people don’t even exist in his country, perhaps because his government has killed so many of them.

The Saudi Arabian regime beheads gay men, the Ugandan government imprisons and tortures gay activists and Palestinian gays flee the horrific oppression of the Palestinian Authority for the freedom of Tel Aviv.

A crucial component to any American president’s foreign policy must be the strengthening and spread of democracy and liberty around the world. What a terrific message it would send, particularly to illiberal and totalitarian regimes, if the United States were to appoint an openly gay person to a high-ranking State Department position committed to the furtherance of human rights abroad.

 James Kirchick is assistant editor at The New Republic

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“There are tons of great gay people who you could appoint: Christine Quinn for HUD Secretary, Urvashi Vaid for Attorney General, Tony Kushner to Chair the NEA, Suze Orman for Secretary of the Treasury (she knows her money and we are in a financial crisis!), Doogie Howser for Surgeon General (he did graduate from Med School at 16!)”.  

 But I am much less interested in seeing an LGBT person in government than I am in seeing a real progressive who is committed to individual sexual freedom and equality for all.

 In this case, identity alone is not enough -  the simple fact that someone is gay does not make that person a friend of the gay community.  In fact, in the wake of the Larry Craig scandal it became pretty clear that there are already a lot of gay people in government, and they aren’t exactly pushing for my political agenda. 

 The last thing I want is a gay Clarence Thomas!

Jon Mallow is co-host of The Gay Agenda video blog

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An attorney general or other high-ranking Justice Department official would have a great impact on federal law.

A presidential press secretary would be a highly visible representative of the LGBT community.

And the day we have an openly LGBT Secretary of Defense would be historic for so many reasons.

But most of these positions would be reflective of a pro-equality presidential administration. One place where an LGBT person could exercise a great deal of discretion in a way that would benefit the community in untold ways would be the Department of Health and Human Services.

He or she could direct resources to HIV/AIDS, enhance LGBT health at all ages, and make positive changes for LGBT families. He or she could also draw attention to LGBT aging issues, an area that has been largely unaddressed.

Joe Solmonese is the president of the Human Rights Campaign

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The presence of Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin in the U.S. House of Representatives has proven to be of great value in educating Congress about the lives of LGBT America. 

The U.S. Senate isn’t the most diverse place and a gay voice would help move the ball forward on many slow moving pieces of legislation important to achieving equality. 

In a legislative body where decorum and respect (mostly!) rule the day, having an openly gay person serving there would also change the way many in the Washington press corps view LGBT people and how they cover us. 

Lane Hudson is a political and communications consultant

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Outside of President, there is no position other than an appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court that would have a larger impact on gay lives.  This is true in terms of raw jurisprudence, and just as important, in human terms.

There is a true story in the modern U.S. Supreme history that is instructive. In 1987, the Supreme Court ruled in Bowers vs. Hardwick that “homosexuals” were not due any particular Constitutional protection. In that case, Georgia police had entered the home of Michael Hardwick and without probable cause, went deeper into the house to discover Michael and another man in his bedroom. 

Both were arrested under the sodomy statute. 

The court ruled that unlike bias that operates in the case of women or race, for example, there was no particular reason to bring deeper scrutiny to the actions of the state.  That is, they concluded that it made no difference in terms of the aggressive behavior of the police that the men were gay.  (Imagine them entering a married heterosexual couple’s bedroom, and launching a search to determine if they were engaged in sodomy.)

But here is the point.  Justice Powell, a moderate member of the court, was the swing in that case. (He voted against us.)  Based on his judicial rulings he could have gone either way.  But what Justice Powell did not know at the time of the ruling is that he had a gay clerk. 

That clerk remained closeted throughout the deliberations on the case. This decision took 17 years to correct in Lawrence vs. Texas.  During Bowers, at one point, so the story goes, Justice Powell even asked if his clerks or staff knew anyone who was gay in an attempt to get more insight into the case.  

 Silence.

Justice Powell (now deceased) went on to lament his decision in the Bowers case as the least proud moment of his career.  No doubt he would have received more guidance had a strong confident gay person been in his midst.

Imagine a smart gay or lesbian Justice with reasonable social skills joining the rest of the New Yorker cartoon depiction of the court. It would be difficult to imagine anything making LGBT issues more human, more alive than having a colleague who was gay on the Court.  Before any ruling they would know they would have to look their colleague in the eye before opining. 

Imagine having to face Paul Smith (who argued Lawrence vs. Texas so beautifully, not to mention many  other cases before the Supreme Court) smiling every morning as he made his way down the wide marble hallways.  It would be hard to turn your back on Paul Smith.

 Again, most decisions - from the limits of state matrimonial law to whether ERISA must be extended to same sex unions –  will likely be resolved in the Supreme Court of the United States. We would do well to identify some amazing talent and start our quiet campaign to Barack Obama. 

Elizabeth Birch is the former executive director of the Human Rights Campaign

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Why?

1) To avoid another Iraq. There are so many lesbians in positions of power in the U.S. that if Greece doesn’t make friends with the LGBT community quickly, we might suddenly “find” WMDs on the Isle of Lesbos, and end up in another war in which nobody wins but Dick Cheney.

2) To cut down on lawsuits. Friendlier relations between our two countries will prevent the international courts from being deluged with counter-suits from American lesbians who are insulted at the Greeks being insulted (I hear Ellen DeGeneres is consulting her attorneys as we speak).

3) To improve lesbian dating opportunities. Statistics show that one of the best places to meet a potential partner is at work, and the Foreign Minister of Greece, Dora Bakoyannis, is pretty hot. Plus, what sounds like a better way to meet women: strolling through the Isle of Lesbos, or trolling on Match.com?

Sarah Warn is Editor in Chief of AfterEllen.com

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But selecting just one of those, I’d most like to see an openly LGBTQ person in a state gubernatorial slot. 

There have been 29 female governors, eight of whom are serving presently, and four African-American governors, two of whom are serving now. Thus, this appears to be one of the next emerging political hurdles for our collective community. 

It would demonstrate the will of a cross-section of an electorate, as opposed to an appointee, who might feel forced upon the people, at least in the eyes of some. 

It would also offer the clearest demonstration, other than that which is required by the President, of such a person’s ability to manage what I presume would be the broadest range of job requirements and interests.  

Such a showing would make apparent to potential nay-sayers in the mass population our capability to accomplish such a task, however painfully obvious that fact is to us.

 Robert Gant is an actor and gay rights activist

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We know that court clerks have made a difference in swaying opinion – so an actual justice would make a monumental difference from the inside.

 It would also make the conservative justices squirm. They would basically be put in a position of looking a colleague in the eyes and  saying, “we are going to take away your fundamental rights.”

Our community ought to have a voice at the table of justice.

Wayne Besen is the executive director of TruthWinsOut.org

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The appointment of the first Jewish (Louis Brandeis), female (Sandra Day O’Connor) and black (Thurgood Marshall) Justice to the Supreme Court marked an important step in the full acknowledgement of the voices of each of those groups in our system of constitutional law.

It is time now for the appointment of the first openly LGBT Justice.

Although individual Justices do not “represent” their constituents in the way elected officials do, there is no doubt that an openly LGBT Justice would bring a distinctive set of experiences and perspectives to the Court. Moreover, the appointment of such a Justice would publicly recognize the standing of LGBT citizens in our society in a way that in itself help to further the equality of all individuals under the law.

There are many quite sensible nominees based on their achievements in the legal profession. Two obvious candidates would be Kathleen Sullivan, former Dean of the Stanford Law School, and Pamela Karlan, one of the nation’s most distinguished scholars of constitutional law.

Geoffrey R. Stone is the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago

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