Pictured Elton John receiving an award in Philadelphia earlier this year. Photo by Doug Meszler
'There were two feather boas, a motorised leopard-skin sofa and a spangly silver jacket but the man affectionately described by his fans as a 'raving queen' sprang a surprise yesterday. Leaving high camp to the crowd, Sir Elton Hercules John registered his civil partnership with David Furnish wearing an impeccably restrained dark suit. Civil, understated and in the shadow of Windsor Castle, it was a partnership the Queen would probably approve of. The house of Windsor could also learn a trick or two from the celebrities that increasingly eclipse it. Bowing before his audience like a portly stationmaster pleased to have won a tidy platform award, Sir Elton blew kisses and waved back the crowd's affection.' — Guardian Unlimited on the wedding of Elton John and David Furnish, partners for 12 years, who were among the 678 civil partnership ceremonies held by gay and lesbian couples across England and Wales on the first day such unions were allowed, Dec. 21.
'If old Quentin Crisp had been alive now—and I remember sitting with him in the 60s—he would have been over the moon.' — Roy Williams, who, with his partner of 39 years, Bob Charles, was one of the few gay couples outside where the John and Furnish ceremony was held.
'I don't think cruising is dysfunctional. But I don't cruise any more, believe me. It is one thing to be self-destructive and then try to be cool about it; it is another for it to happen again, you just look stupid.' —Singer George Michael to Britain's Evening Standard, Dec. 5.
'Gay men don't have a higher sex drive than straight men; the latter are merely restrained by women. ... Men are programmed to shag. To me, the idea of not having to take part in that lie means I can be more honest with [ partner ] Kenny [ Goss ] . The things I would never have dreamed of saying to my girlfriends, it actually helps to say in a gay relationship. Kenny and I have a level of trust, an understanding, that men and women don't have, which is desperately sad.' — Singer George Michael to Britain's Evening Standard, Dec. 5.
'We'll still have an open relationship [ after Kenny Goss and I enter into a civil partnership under the new UK law ] , it works great, and we are coming up to 10 years together. It hasn't always been easy, we both went into it with a heterosexual point of view because we both came from relatively conservative backgrounds. ... If you can get over the idea of jealousy, it's great. Jealousy is such a destructive emotion.' —George Michael.
'Brokeback Mountain is one of the most poignant love stories I've ever seen committed to film. ... What Brokeback Mountain does is allow audiences to experience, on an intensely emotional level, how ignorance and intolerance can force people to deny their love and deny who they are. ... It's a magnificently crafted love story that works on every level imaginable. It's exactly the kind of thing people go to the movies to experience in the first place.' — Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation President Neil Giuliano in a Dec. 7 statement.
'It was just another story when I started writing it. I had no idea it was going to even end up on the screen. I didn't even think it was going to be published when I was first working on it because the subject matter was not in the usual ruts in the literary road.' — Annie Proulx on her short story Brokeback Mountain, which was made into the current widely acclaimed gay film of the same name, to the Associated Press, Dec. 17.
'I think this country is hungry for this story. [ I ] t's a love story and there's hardly much love around these days. I think people are sick of divisiveness, hate-mongering, disasters, war, loss and need and want a reminder that sometimes love comes along that is strong and permanent, and that it can happen to anyone.' — Annie Proulx on her short story Brokeback Mountain.
'My son-in-law, who prides himself on being a Bud-drinking, NRA-member redneck, liked the movie so much he went to it twice. Straight men are seeing it and they're not having any problem with it. The only people who would have problems with it are people who are very insecure about themselves and their own sexuality and who would be putting up a defense, and that's usually young men who haven't figured things out yet.' — Proulx.
'I can't think of a more effective way to annoy and alienate most moviegoing Americans than to show two cowboys lusting after each other. It's a mockery of the Western genre embodied by every movie cowboy from John Wayne to Gene Autry to Kevin Costner.' — Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America's Culture and Family Institute, writing on the group's Web site about Brokeback Mountain, Dec. 16.
'If Christians protest too loudly, they can end up making the mistake of calling attention to a movie that otherwise may not do very well at the box office. We have to be very careful not to use our anger strategies to a point where they boomerang on us.' —Dick Rolfe of the Dove Foundation, which encourages production of 'family-friendly' films, in reference to the new gay movie Brokeback Mountain, to the Associated Press, Dec. 16.
