WASHINGTON (AP) -- The National Endowment for the Arts reversed a Bush
administration decision and Wednesday approved grants for three gay and
lesbian film festivals.

The National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture welcomed the action,
saying the original decision had been based on the NEA's "fear of
political backlash."

The decision headed off a threatened lawsuit by the Oakland, CA-based
alliance, an umbrella organization that had requested the original
funding on behalf of the Gay and Lesbian Media Coalition in Los Angeles,
New Festival in New York and the Pittsburgh International Lesbian and
Gay Film Festival.

The NEA said it will give the alliance the $17,500 the film festivals
would have received in 1992.

The grants were rejected last November by former acting chairwoman
Anne-Imelda Radice, who was appointed by President Bush after he fired
her predecessor, John Frohnmayer.

Arts organizations said many of the films shown in the festivals were
also shown at non-gay film festivals. They said the rejection of the
grants was based purely on politics, not artistic merit.

The NEA said it reversed its decision after Acting Senior Deputy
Chairwoman Ana Steele found an "abuse of process" in Radice's rejection
of the grants. Radice made the decision after the deadline for
notifying grant applicants had passed and the festivals had already
occurred, the agency said.

At the time, Radice said the festivals did not "demonstrate artistic
excellence and artistic merit worthy of support by this agency."

But Steele's review did not look into the artistic merit of the
festivals.

"Artistic judgment was outside the scope of the review," the agency
said.

Julian Low, director of the alliance, called Radice's arguments specious
because "the issue was clearly the NEA's own fear of political backlash
due to the gay and lesbian themes of the artistic expression."

Larry Horne, director of the Gay and Lesbian Media Coalition, said the
festival is thrilled by Wednesday's decision.

"We are ecstatic and hope that it's signaling a new turn for the NEA in
continuing to fund the diversity of arts in this country," Horne said.

"We're very gratified that the NEA decided to reverse its decision, said
Richard Cummings, executive director of the Pittsburgh festival. He
said he is "cautiously optimistic" about the future of the NEA under the
Clinton administration.

The New Festival offices in New York are closed through Aug. 30.

The three film festivals applied for funding in late 1991 and 1992
through the alliance after the NEA agreed to give it $250,000 to
distribute to a number of arts organizations.

The alliance, following NEA procedures, sent the agency a list of the
organizations it planned to fund. Of the 53 recommended organizations,
the NEA rejected only the three gay film festivals.

President Clinton has nominated actress Jane Alexander to head the NEA.
Confirmation hearings are expected to begin next month.