'I've never really had a desire to be with a woman, and that's the honest truth. I love them all. I think women are beautiful. I have five sisters. I'm close to women, and know them inside out, but I'm a guy's gal.' — Dolly Parton to the gay newspaper Dallas Voice, Nov. 25.
' [ Supreme Court nominee ] Judge [ Samuel ] Alito [ Jr. ] has a political agenda different from that required of members of the judiciary. It is based on his personal political ideology and stands apart from any principle that can reasonably be located in the Constitution. We do not believe that Judge Alito has the necessary commitment to liberty and equality for all Americans. Judge Alito puts particular political ends above a fair reading of the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the laws passed by Congress. Put differently, his political agenda leads him to write judicial decisions to make the law conform to his politics. He then applies legal craftsmanship and precedent to justify the law he is making.' — Lambda Legal Executive Director Kevin Cathcart in a Dec. 12 statement.
'Judge [ Samuel ] Alito's appointment would spell disaster for LGBT Americans for decades to come. His judicial record fully reflects his embrace in the 1980s of the right wing agenda and is completely antithetical to the constitutional principles and values on which our rights and equal protection guarantees rest. His record shows open and declared hostility to reproductive rights, to the power of Congress to protect all Americans, to the values of diversity, to established, fair and effective rules in enforcing non-discrimination protections and to appropriate constraints on official and public space religious expression.' — National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman in a Dec. 12 statement.
'Coming out to people who you're not sure what their reaction is going to be is always incredibly difficult and I had to come out to my extended family because I was going on Survivor. They didn't know beforehand. So I was nervous. I didn't know if they were going to be proud of me for being on the show or upset that I was 'out' on national television. But as soon as the first episode aired, they all called and they are like: 'We are so proud of you. You are representing yourself and us so well. And we're proud that you're a member of our family.'' — Rafe Judkins, who snagged third place in the most recent season of TV's Survivor, to PlanetOut.com, Dec. 13.
'If you overplan [ a city ] , if you destroy all the spaces in between, you also destroy some of the energy that gives the nerve to the city. It's not only a problem for gay men who want to have sex in the local park, it's a problem for the skaters or the kids who want to have a nice party in the parking lot. You have to create spaces where things are more anarchistic and unorganized, otherwise it all turns into a mall, and I just hate it.' — Openly gay Århus, Denmark, city councilor Uffe Elbæk to the Ottawa, Ontario, gay newspaper Capital Xtra!, Dec. 1. Århus is Denmark's second-largest city.
'When it comes to sex or flirting, I prefer to be at a club where you know there's a mixed crowd, where you really don't know whether the guy you are hitting on is straight or gay. It creates tension. I like it much more.' — Openly gay Århus, Denmark, city councilor Uffe Elbæk to the Ottawa, Ontario, gay newspaper Capital Xtra!, Dec. 1.
'I come to Palm Springs a lot. ... It's very relaxing, and I can go to Gold's Gym and walk on the treadmill and not feel like the biggest and oldest person in the world. There are people a lot bigger and a lot older at that Gold's Gym.' — Gay porn director Chi Chi LaRue to the Palm Springs gay magazine Pulp, Dec. 2.
'Straight people, the gay joke goes, are mostly good for making more gay people. But what are gay people good for? If you're an editor or reporter at The New York Times, gays are good for inches—lots and lots of inches. Of newsprint. ( Sorry. ) ' — Simon Dumenco in his December Details magazine column, 'Outing The New York Times.'
'REGULAR, or even occasional, readers of the Times can't help but notice how much stuff about The Gays the nation's newspaper of record has been publishing lately. Part of this, naturally, is because of the so-called culture wars and the continuing battles over gay marriage and other civil rights for gays—totally legitimate news stories, of course, that the Times would be remiss in not covering. But in the 'soft'-news features, the Times seems to have settled on using gays as a sort of editorial Hamburger Helper.' — Simon Dumenco's December Details magazine article, 'Outing The New York Times.'
'A gay story makes headlines in the Times almost every day, and sometimes it seems as if the paper's ever-expanding portfolio of lifestyle pages ... would collapse into a black hole if it weren't for gay and gay-related blather. ... The message is that gays are still the Other—this exotic tribe that one seeks out mainly when in search of thoughts on style and/or bitchy wit.' — Simon Dumenco.
'OBSESSING about The Gays ( and The Maybe Gays and The Not Actually Gays ) while aiding and abetting gay panic is arguably encoded in the Times' DNA. Consider the very first gay Page One headline, from December 17, 1963: 'Growth of Overt Homosexuality in City Provokes Wide Concern.'' — Simon Dumenco.
