'If you want an argument for why the cause for gay visibility, dignity and equality is necessary and indeed noble, just watch that [ NBC News ] interview again. [ Sen. Larry ] Craig was seeking in that toilet stall a connection, a shard of intimacy, that the world would not give him, or that he could not give himself. No one should have to live without that intimacy and dignity—no one. Living a life like that—a deeply lonely, compromised, painful interior existence—is a very sophisticated form of hell. No human can keep it up forever. No human should have to keep it up forever. He is a hypocrite; and he made his choices. I am not going to dispute that. His voting record helped sustain the misery for others that he lived with himself. He is forever responsible for that. But he is also a victim. And to see such a victim's pain exposed brutally in a public restroom pains me. He needs help.' — Gay writer Andrew Sullivan on his blog, Oct. 17.
'By the end of the '90s, the institutionalization of the gay movement was complete. HRC [ Human Rights Campaign ] , the wealthiest national gay organization with the largest staff, some 114 people now—to which today's corporate media invariably turn for the 'gay view' on issues—adopted a top-down, corporate structure that demands little more of its members than writing a check or attending a black-tie dinner, or occasionally writing a letter, or more likely sending an e-mail, to a public official.' — Journalist Doug Ireland writing in New York's Gay City News, Oct. 18.
'I'm addicted to success. I am definitely a girl who gets what I want; not because I'm a brat but because I just go for it. I'll have plenty of time when I'm older to wake up at noon, smoke pot and paint. When I look back I want to be able to say I've lived up to my own expectations, I've risen to the occasion and I was the best I could be.'—The L Word star Leisha Hailey to the British national lesbian magazine Diva, October issue.
'The struggles, discrimination, fashion catastrophes and camp icons that have defined the gay movement for nearly a century seem like ancient history now—the stuff of dusty archives or those-were-the-days conversations over a game of euchre at the 519 Community Centre on Church Street. More alarming is the fact that there's a new generation of gay men who know Barbra Streisand only from Meet the Fockers. Imagine that.' — Kamal Al-Solaylee writing in Toronto's Globe and Mail daily newspaper, Sept. 29.
'Wow. What is my workout routine—I've never been asked that question! Um, I don't know, I've just been ... working with a trainer and uh, I don't know, lifting a little weight, and running a little. I don't know. Uh, you know, I just turned 40, so yes, I'm trying to be a little bit healthier now and trying to eat a little bit more sensibly. And also, with traveling so much, you know, it's tough when you're in Iraq to do anything, so I try to work out when I'm here. This is really. ... I sound ridiculous. I didn't know that New York Magazine would notice my biceps. My trainer will be thrilled.' — CNN anchor Anderson Cooper to New York Magazine at an Elton John AIDS Foundation benefit Sept. 25 in New York City.
'Sex came first. Before marriage, there was sex. Before religion, there was sex. Before freakin' humans, there was sex. All human cultures, and all our fanciful religions, were constructed around sex, built to regulate and control sex, sanctify and elevate sex. But so many people want to start with culture or religion before they approach sex, as if the former can teach us all we need to know about the latter. Not true.' — Gay author and columnist Dan Savage to Slate.com, Sept. 26.
—Assistance: Bill Kelley
