'I'm not going to get old in public. I've seen some great men, literally great men, deteriorate in public view. ... I don't think you should do that. ... One goal is to retire early enough to write some books. I wish I could write more fluidly than I do. I can still talk a lot more easily than I write.' — Gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., to the Associated Press, Dec. 29.
'I'm for it [ same-sex marriage ] . I personally have no desire to get married. That's for straight gay people. I'm not one of 'em. I wanna invest in gay divorce and tattoo removal, the growth industries of the next decade.' — Filmmaker John Waters to the Portland, Ore., gay newspaper Just Out, Dec. 2.
'I'll rashly predict that the big Hollywood question posed on the front page of The Los Angeles Times after those stunning weekend grosses—'Can Brokeback Mountain Move the Heartland?'—will be answered with a resounding yes. All the signs of a runaway phenomenon are present, from an instant parody on Saturday Night Live to the report that a multiplex in Plano, Tex., sold more advance tickets for the so-called 'gay cowboy picture' than for King Kong.' — Columnist Frank Rich writing in The New York Times, Dec. 18.
'The audience is forced to recognize that gay people were fixtures in the red state of Wyoming ( and every other corner of the country, too ) long before Matthew Shepard and Mary Cheney were born. Without a single polemical speech, this laconic film dramatizes homosexuality as an inherent and immutable identity, rather than some aberrant and elective 'agenda' concocted by conspiratorial 'elites' in Chelsea, the Castro and South Beach, as anti-gay proselytizers would have it. Ennis and Jack long for a life together, not for what gay baiters pejoratively label a 'lifestyle.'' — Columnist Frank Rich writing in The New York Times, Dec. 18.
'This landmark measure ends the situation where same-sex relationships were invisible in the eyes of the law, denied any recognition of their commitment. It gives gay and lesbian couples who register their relationship the same safeguards over inheritance, insurance and employment and pension benefits as married couples. No longer will same sex couples who have decided to share their lives fear they will be denied a say over the partner's medical treatment or find themselves denied a home if their partner dies.' — British Prime Minister Tony Blair as the United Kingdom's Civil Partnership Act took effect, Dec. 21. Registered same-sex couples receive all the rights and obligations of matrimony.
'It's the sex. We stay together because of the sex. The emotional life is dead now, but the sex is so good I can't let go.' — Actor Nathan Lane on his relationship with his The Producers costar Matthew Broderick, to the San Diego gay magazine Buzz, Dec. 23.
'I'm not supposed to say it, but Matthew's gay. He's really gay. He's much gayer than I am. It wouldn't take much—a couple of drinks. He's very agreeable.' — Actor Nathan Lane on his The Producers costar Matthew Broderick, to the San Diego gay magazine Buzz, Dec. 23. Broderick, who was being interviewed simultaneously, responded, 'Well, listen to her!'
'It's such a huge disconnect. When I'm touring around with my book I get crowds of people come to see me in places that are hardly considered progressive. They come to see me, they like Queer Eye, and then they turn around and cast [ votes for ] these ballot initiatives that characterize our relationships as meaningless.' — Queer Eye for the Straight Guy food guy Ted Allen to the San Francisco Bay Times, Dec. 15.
'What we do on Queer Eye is in many ways superficial when it comes to hair and clothing and decorating your apartment, but we are five openly gay men who are playing ourselves. We've had the chance to be ourselves on television, reach a lot of straight American living rooms and be embraced there. I think that helps.' — Queer Eye for the Straight Guy food guy Ted Allen to the San Francisco Bay Times, Dec. 15.
'All those femmes want to turn us butches into hausfraus. It's what you bitches all want. [ B ] utches are all pussy-whipped.' — Comedian/singer/actress Lea Delaria to London's Pink Paper, Dec. 8.
'The people in that place are very conservative. They're very wealthy. They're to the right of Mussolini, OK? Forty percent of the population are plastic surgeons. That is a true fact about Palm Springs.' — Lesbian comedian/singer/actress Lea Delaria to London's Pink Paper, Dec. 8.
'The 20 percent of the city that was spared [ flooding ] , 80 percent of those parts of the city are gay [ neighborhoods ] . All those preachers who blamed the gay community for Katrina—our neighborhoods were the ones that had the rainbow over us and were blessed.' — New Orleans Human Relations Commission Executive Director Larry Bagneris to this column, Dec. 18.
