" [ I'm gay ] just because I don't wear dresses? Give me a break. It's silly. Every female has been called gay at one time. That's not who I am. I don't have a problem with anybody who is but that's just not me." ... Singer Alicia Keys in Vibe magazine, and also in London's The Sun.
"Oh, no. Physical intimacy, quite possibly, yeah. I can't remember. So What? Yeah. Physical, sexual intimacy, yeah, quite possibly. There's whole chunks of my life I can't remember. But 'boyfriend'? [ Shakes his head ] Once. But twice, it's not possible, that I wouldn't remember it twice. I can accept I might not remember it once, but I can't really deal with the fact that I couldn't remember it twice. Or three times or four times. I don't get it. You know he was a fucking good friend of mine. It's very difficult for me. I haven't spoken to him since this has come out. I'll just look him in the eye an say, 'What the fuck are you talking about? Please tell me.' ... The Who's Pete Townshend commenting in an interview with Rolling Stone about a recent write up by Danny Fields [ Doors publicist and Ramones manager ] that the two of them were on-and-off again boyfriends in the late 1960s. Interview by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, Aug. 8, 2002.
"No. [ Laughs ] No, I haven't. I'm from the Sixties. You know, we tried everything. But..." ... Townshend's answer when asked if he's had many physical encounters with men over years, Rolling Stone.
"No I don't. I know that I've got...and this has got nothing to do with anything I've actually done, or not done...a very feminine side. I think my creative side is very feminine. And I went so far as to say in that interview [ with Timothy White in 1989, when Townshend was misunderstood as referring to his bisexuality ] that I often feel like a woman; I can see what a woman feels ...the whole act of submission sexually. But, in a sense, what I was taking about was the act of submission sexually in a male-female relationship, that you can swap roles." ... Townshend responding to the question if he considers himself fundamentally bisexual, Rolling Stone.
"I think, just for the record, there's only two cases where I've experimented consciously, and I think Danny's situation might be one where it might be said I experimented unconsciously, which he admitted to me for the first time in this e-mail. It's a bit of a shock for me, but there it is." ... Townshend in a follow up e-mail to writer Chris Heath after talking with Danny Fields.
"I never fucked him. I adore him. I wish I had ever a boyfriend or girlfriend in my life as magnificent as him, or as gorgeous as he was and is." ... Danny Fields referring to Townshend, in Rolling Stone.
"There's not another political leader in the country who's done what I've done... and they don't even dare talk about it. Nobody has signed a civil-unions bill giving equal rights to gay and lesbian people, and so I don't think it's any contest [ among gay voters between me and other possible Democratic Presidential candidates ] ." ... Vermont Gov. Howard Dean to San Diego's Gay & Lesbian Times, Aug. 1.
"The Internet has been a huge force for change. The access to information, to literature, to other gays...this is our real revolution. The new generation, the ones in their 20s who use the Internet, have a completely different view of themselves. ... Gays from my generation still feel this shame, and we are still afraid to talk openly." ... Warsaw, Poland, software engineer Witek Seislak, 40, to the Chicago Tribune, Aug. 2.
"There are a lot of nasty people in the porn business, I'm just not one of them. I'm just a big, fat happy drag queen that loves to tell boys how to have sex." ... American gay porn director Chi Chi LaRue to London's Gay Times, in May.
" [ My mother ] has not watched my work. And she has not read my book, I will not let her. And I won't let her come to a show, 'cause I don't want my mom to see that. But she's seen me in drag, you know. I've shown her some video footage, the parts I thought she could handle. I'm sure she would rather her son was not a big drag queen that directs gay porno films, but she understands and accepts me...so that's pretty cool." ... Chi Chi LaRue to London's Gay Times.
"It's such a disrespect thing to accuse me of being like that. So no, I'm not gay. I can't believe people are still coming with that." ... Heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis to London's Observer, August 4.
"It's funny that gay people can still be patriotic: we pay taxes but can't legally marry or serve openly in the military. Still, after the terrorist attacks, many gay publications featured American flags on their covers; flags adorned our public meeting spaces." ... Q Syndicate columnist Paula Martinac in Kentucky's The Letter, August.
"He's incredibly brave to have done that song. Especially when doing something like that could be considered very dangerous in today's world. ... I hear he's too scared to go over to the States now. What a joke. I'd really like to meet George [ Michael ] . I want to congratulate him on standing up and speaking out. ... The war against terrorism is terrorism. The whole thing is just bullshit." ... Actor Woody Harrelson to London's Mirror, Aug. 9, in reference to Michael's new single, "Shoot The Dog," which has been denounced by some as anti-American. The video can be viewed online at www.mtv.co.uk.
"Bareback." ... Gay porn actor DC Chandler when asked by the Charlottesville, Va., weekly newspaper The Hook, "Is there anything you wouldn't do on film?"
"Does this cock in my mouth make me look gay?" ... Found in the "personal quote" box of an AOL user's profile, Aug. 10.
"If you teach people that something [ being gay ] as deep inside them as their very personality is either a source of unimaginable shame or unmentionable sin, and if you tell them that their only ethical direction is either the suppression of that self in a life of suffering or a life of meaningless promiscuity followed by eternal damnation, then it is perhaps not surprising that their moral and sexual behavior becomes wildly dichotic; that it veers from compulsive activity to shame and withdrawal; or that it becomes anesthetized by drugs or alcohol or fatally distorted by the false, crude ideology of easy prophets." ... Gay writer Andrew Sullivan in a letter to the editor of The Nation, Aug. 19.
