My experience as a young person was very different from hers [ girlfriend Tammy Lynn Michaels ] . In those 14 years, America has become more tolerant about gays. In high school I was isolated, but she was more open. Even though I'm a high-profile lesbian, I can't hold hands with her in public. She's teaching me to practice what I preach. She rocks my world." ... Singer Melissa Etheridge to Britain's national lesbian glossy, Diva, January issue.
"When I first met Julie [ Cypher ] , I assumed she was gay. And when she said she was married, I went, 'Huh?' I didn't switch her, I thought she was gay and didn't know it. But then her bisexuality started coming in. She said, 'I need something else.' It didn't work on a lot of levels, not just sexually. We stayed together a few more years than was comfortable because of the children. Eventually we realized it would be better to have two happy households than one miserable one." ... Etheridge.
"All men are potentially gay. The male G-spot is in the anus." ... Boy George during an appearance on Britain's Frank Skinner Show, as quoted by The Pink Paper, Nov. 23.
"You get back from trips exhausted, and then you read that the office is not very visible. That really pisses me off. It would be a lot easier to just sit in the office 9 to 5. There are no restraints on me. No one has said, 'You can't go here, you can't do this or that or say something controversial.' The president surrounds himself with people he trusts, and...until you prove otherwise...he lets you do your job." ... Scott Evertz, openly gay director of the U.S. Office of National AIDS Policy, to The Advocate, Dec. 4.
"I feel like someone who is here to do a good job, who is not afraid to have a picture of his partner on his desk, and who will probably never be in Vanity Fair the way one of Clinton's [ gay ] appointees was. It pissed me off during the campaign when someone said gay people wouldn't be appointed if Bush were elected. I was like, 'That's not true.' And I'm evidence that it is not a true statement." ... Scott Evertz.
"He [ George W. Bush ] got 25% of the self-identified gay vote. So he said to me early this year, 'I did pretty well in the gay community, didn't I?'" ... Evertz.
"We should all ask ourselves, will we be safer after the bombing campaign is over or, rather, will we have exacerbated anti-American sentiment in the Middle East, Asia and other countries, leading to further attacks? By not addressing why there is so much anti-U.S. sentiment, are we really getting to the root of the problems?" ... Surina Khan, executive director of the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission, as quoted by the Washington Blade, Nov. 16.
"I was told not to watch the British version [ of Queer As Folk ] . From what I've been told, it's truly excellent, but the U.S. producers didn't want the British style to be too influential on the American version." ... Actress Sharon Gless who plays PFLAG mom Debbie Novotny on Showtime's Queer As Folk, to Britain's Gay Times, December issue.
"I get to wear the most outrageous T-shirts that you've ever seen. One of the highlights of my day is coming on set and finding out what's the slogan of the day that I'll be wearing!" ... Actress Sharon Gless.
"What I adore about the show is ... that sense of doing something that's challenging and groundbreaking. And real...a feeling of something being honest, upfront and real, is still unusual for American TV." ... Gless.
"I have a great relationship with the gay audience, because I've always made it clear that I don't judge anybody on the grounds of their sexuality. People are people, right? You can love a man or a woman, it makes no difference, because love takes you to a special place. That's what I was raised to believe, and I'm raising my children in the same way. If I ever hear a negative remark about someone gay, I'll pick them up on it." ... Diana Ross to London's Gay Times, December issue.
"My girlfriends are always fixing me up with blind dates, which is pretty much the only way a woman in my position is going to meet eligible men. You don't know anyone, do you?" ... Diana Ross, barking up the wrong tree in an interview with London's Gay Times, December issue.
"I don't think pornography like that should be lying around where innocent people can read it in the lonely stretches of the night." ... Openly gay British actor Sir Ian McKellen on the Bible's Leviticus 18:22 ( "Thou shall not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is an abomination." ) , as quoted by The New York Post, Nov. 27. The Post said McKellen tears that page out of Bibles.
"Not only are they [ gay men ] not talking about it, but they're not supporting their friends in staying safe. Prevention can't work unless it comes from the community. In the early '80s, it came from within the community. Prevention agencies can provide help, but safe sex can't be imposed from the outside." ... Dr. Tom Coates, director of the AIDS Research Institute at the University of California at San Francisco, as quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 30.
"No such videotape [ showing me having gay sex ] exists or has ever existed or could ever exist." ... Actor Tom Cruise as quoted by the Reuters news service, Nov. 30.
