"I wouldn't call [ Pink Flamingos ] a gay movie."—Director John Waters ( Pictured ) _____________
'Something caught my eye [ as I sat on the toilet ] . I glanced down. Whether it was foot movement close to my stall, I was spreading my legs and, uh, I saw paper—it looked like it was stuck to the heel of my shoe. Toilet paper. I don't know if you've ever seen anybody walk out of a toilet with toilet paper stuck to their foot. ... I reached down, I pulled it off. My hand went below the divider. Within seconds there was a card underneath saying 'police,' and the motion of the finger to the door. ... [ T ] his, in my opinion, was an officer who was more interested in an arrest than he was in the facts.' — U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, to Boise TV station KTVB, Oct. 16. According to the police report, Craig slowly swiped his hand, palm upward, along the bottom of the stall divider with his fingers protruding into the policeman's stall three separate times. To bathroom cruisers, this means, 'Come closer to the wall so I can touch you.' In a post-arrest interview with the arresting officer on June 11, Craig said, 'I remember reaching down once; there was a piece of toilet paper back behind me, and picking it up.' This KTVB interview and one the same evening on NBC added the element of the toilet paper being underneath or stuck to Craig's shoe.
'Something attracted my attention [ as I sat on the toilet ] and I looked down, and as I looked down I saw a piece of toilet paper on the floor and it happened to be under my heel and, uh, I don't know if you've seen it before, but I've seen it—somebody walk out of a booth with a piece of toilet paper stuck to their foot. I reached down to take it off my shoe, or out from under my shoe, and my hand did go below the divider at that moment in time.' — U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, to NBC News, Oct. 16. According to the police report, Craig slowly swiped his hand, palm upward, along the bottom of the stall divider with his fingers protruding into the policeman's stall three separate times. To bathroom cruisers, this means, 'Come closer to the wall so I can touch you.' In a post-arrest interview with the arresting officer on June 11, Craig said, 'I remember reaching down once; there was a piece of toilet paper back behind me, and picking it up.' This NBC interview and one the same evening on Boise's KTVB added the element of the toilet paper being underneath or stuck to Craig's shoe.
'While many Americans may only be vaguely familiar with the idea of 'cruising,' there is a secret world of sex between men that exists in public places across the country. ... Public places like men's restrooms, in airports and train stations, truck stops, university libraries and parks, have long been places where gay and bisexual men, particularly those in the closet, congregate in order to meet for anonymous sex. Over time, people familiar with cruising told ABCNEWS.com, gay men began using a codified system of signals to indicate to others that they were interested in sex.' — ABC News covering the Sen. Larry Craig toilet-sex scandal, Aug. 28.
' [ Republican San Diego Mayor Jerry ] Sanders seems to follow a wondrous, though not often noticed, law of humanistic expansion. It goes something like this: When you find your heart, when you look to your own family and your own life and your own soul for the answers and go beyond the limitations of your political handbook and disregard the bitter decrees force-fed to you by some dogmatic religion or belief system, well, chances are just incredibly good you will emerge a tiny bit more progressive or liberal or open-minded than before. Is that not fascinating?' — San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford Sept. 26 after Sanders abruptly changed his position on gay marriage, announced that his daughter is a lesbian, and added San Diego to a legal brief that urges the California Supreme Court to legalize same-sex marriage.
'The funny thing about Queer Eye with my family, most of which is Southern and conservative and votes very badly: When I told my parents I was doing the show, they were of course completely appalled and terrified. They thought I was going to get killed and they hated the title. And then, about a month after the show started airing and it was such a hit, A, they loved the show against all odds, but B, it was a real gift for my mother because none of my relatives will ever again ask her why I'm not married or don't have a girlfriend.' — Queer Eye's Ted Allen to AfterElton.com, Oct. 9.
'I wouldn't call [ Pink Flamingos ] a gay movie and I always avoided that ghetto-isation because when my movies first came out ... the audience wasn't just gay people. And the gay people that did come hated other gay people. They didn't get along in the gay world, they rebelled from that, which I do too. Too many rules. What's gayly correct? I don't want to look like I went to the gym. I've never been to the baths or the gym. I've done way worse, I'm not being high-minded here. I'm probably the only gay man you've ever met that has never been to the baths or the gym. Maybe young ones haven't done it either, but my age, definitely.' — Filmmaker John Waters to London's Pink Paper, Sept. 2
'All of my movies are on television. Who would have ever thought that Pink Flamingos would play on regular cable television uncut? I know I'm shocked about it! So that amazes me. Last month, I saw that five of my movies were playing on television and thought, 'Who would have ever imagined that?'' — Gay filmmaker John Waters to San Diego's Gay & Lesbian Times, Oct. 4.
—Assistance: Bill Kelley
