Pictured Felicity Huffman and Kate Clinton 'Jack, who strikes me as a sexual predator, tracks Ennis down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts. But sporadic is not frequent enough for Jack. He wants Ennis full-time. He whines, he pleads, he shouts that when they're apart, he's desolated. Jack can't absorb Ennis' implied response: Better desolate than never. Heath Ledger's performance under Ang Lee's direction is outstanding [ but the film ] is being wildly overpraised. Not by me.' — Gene Shalit reviewing Brokeback Mountain on NBC's Today Show, Jan. 5.
'In describing the behavior of 'Jack' I used words ( 'sexual predator' ) that I now discover have angered, agitated, and hurt many people. I did not intend to use a word that many in the gay community consider incendiary. I certainly had no intention of casting aspersions on anyone in the gay community or on the community itself. I regret any emotional hurt that may have resulted from my review of 'Brokeback Mountain.'' — Gene Shalit apologizing to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Jan. 10 for having said on the Jan. 5 edition of NBC's Today Show, 'Jack, who strikes me as a sexual predator, tracks Ennis down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts.'
'I went to see Brokeback [ Mountain ] . And I can report that it was as shattering and powerful as advertised. People were moved. Nobody threw up.' — Columnist Leonard Pitts, The Miami Herald, Jan. 9.
'The cowboy is our very embodiment of male virtues. In offering us cowboys who are gay then, Brokeback Mountain commits heresy, but it is knowing heresy, matter-of-fact heresy. Nor is it the sex ( what little there is ) that makes it heretical. Rather, it's the emotion, the fact that the movie dares you to deny these men their humanity. Or their love.' — Columnist Leonard Pitts, The Miami Herald, Jan. 9.
'The first time I met transgender women, I was nervous. 'I don't know where to look.' When you meet someone who is severely handicapped you don't know where to look. You want to sort of pretend they're not handicapped but they are handicapped. And I realized all that shit just lives over here with me, that they are these fantastic, normal women.' — Actress Felicity Huffman ( Desperate Housewives, TransAmerica ) to Los Angeles' Lesbian News, January issue.
'I thought there might be a few people who would take issue with Jesus being portrayed on TV at all, but I honestly didn't expect this much. I actually thought—and still do think—that most Christians will embrace Daniel and his family.' — Jack Kenny, openly gay creator of the new NBC TV series Book of Daniel, which has been targeted by Christian activists and, as a result, banned by a few NBC affiliates, to PlanetOut.com, Jan. 6. Among the issues that reportedly upset the Christians is that the series' protagonist, an Episcopal priest, accepts his openly gay son.
'If I go into a gay bar or club—which I do—there's almost no one who doesn't know me, black or white. But that hasn't affected my personal interactions. I'm a loner. I've run away from intimate commitment my entire adult life.'— Openly gay South African High Court Judge Edwin Cameron to POZ magazine, January issue.
'The reality is that the history and the foundation of the LGBT movement has been largely fueled by the progressive base and by courageous Democrats who broke through within one political party. That's wonderful and it got us to the 20-yard line. My vision for the Log Cabin was that I look at this as a community bipartisan effort. To get us into the end zone, it's going to require the courageous young lesbian in Kentucky meeting with her city councilor or the young Republican to come out in Nebraska.' — Log Cabin Republicans President Patrick Guerriero to New York's Gay City News, Jan. 4.
'The closet is no longer a neutral place when gay and lesbian families are under attack and that's an interesting challenge for Democrats and Republicans, for people in power, for people in Washington. ... Part of my increasing goal next year other than protecting our friends is to try to help move closeted gay and lesbian Americans to come out.' — Log Cabin Republicans President Patrick Guerriero to New York's Gay City News, Jan. 4.
'Not since Oscar Wilde regaled both the masses and high society has the world witnessed a gay man as important to pop culture and gay liberation as Elton John. [ He ] has grown into one of the most important gay and AIDS activists on the planet. His holiday wedding ( technically a 'civil union' ) to his long-time partner, Canadian filmmaker David Furnish, was the tabloid wedding of 2005, even in Britain where Elton's uncharacteristically reserved ceremony eclipsed that of Prince Charles and Camilla in the very same historic 17th-century Windsor Guildhall in Berkshire.' — Richard Burnett, columnist for the Montreal alternative-weekly newspaper Hour, Jan. 5.
'It's a measure of how enlarged the open cultural space available to gays has become—as a result of three decades of struggle, coming out, and the subsequent recognition of the gay consumer market—that 2005 marked the debut of three national gay television networks in America. ... But the programming offered by these gay networks is quite disappointing, when it's not downright appalling—especially when one imagines what it could be like.' — Gay journalist and media critic Doug Ireland writing on his blog about Logo, QTN and Here, Jan. 5.
'I read an inordinate number of magazines. I like paper, but I do enjoy online sites like Slate and Salon. I'm not into blogs; I have blogophobia. Probably the best time for me is reading the paper in the morning with [ partner ] Urvashi [ Vaid ] . One of us is usually screaming about something in the news, from [ the administration's position on ] torture, to the face transplant, to Brokeback Mountain. I've been wondering what the lesbian equivalent would be. Housewives in Toledo? All I could think after I saw that movie was thank God for the gay movement.' — Comedian Kate Clinton to PlanetOut.com, Jan. 5.
'New York is jaded, but when you play Indianapolis, the women come out. One of the best compliments I've ever gotten came after a show I did in Lexington, Kentucky. A middle-aged woman came up behind me, whacked me hard on my back, and said, 'Kate Clinton! You made me want to fuck again!' It was fabulous.' — Comedian Kate Clinton to PlanetOut.com, Jan. 5.
