Pictured Peter Paige. Photo by Rex Wockner
'No man has ever really understood me. Come to think of it, no man has ever even tried. Well, except maybe for the female impersonators. Physically and vocally, they studied me, inside and out.' — Excerpt from The Girl Who Walked Home Alone, a new biography of Bette Davis to be published by Simon & Schuster, as published in the March 2006 issue of Vanity Fair.
'People think I don't like those impersonators who do me. Well they're wrong. I like it very much as long as they are very good. The only time I don't like it is if they aren't good, or, worse, if they're better than me.' — From The Girl Who Walked Home Alone
'I'm often a believer in the faster you do it the better it is.' — Gay artist David Hockney on a new exhibition of his paintings 'including portraits of his mum and a number of bare bottomed initmates' to be shown later this year at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, as quoted in the March 2006 issue of Vanity Fair. Here he discusses the speed of his portrait sessions.
'I'm slightly bigger than the Queen.' — Hockney.
'It was an alliance of groups and fairly interesting. There were about five Asian pastors in their clerical collars or stoles carrying banners proclaiming that God loves all families. The theme was family and there were several couples with kids ( all kinds of couples! ) so [ it was ] a festive evening. We wore red rain ponchos with a yellow heart logo saying 'marriage for all.' There were usually a few to several people all along the route clapping and waving. It was lots of fun—I really love that parade and was pleased to march in it. The weather was perfect—it usually rains like mad ( hence the ponchos ) .' — A participant in San Francisco's Chinese New Year's Parade in a letter. This year, for the first time, a float from a gay organization was allowed in the event.
'When I'm throwing a party it's very important that a lot of 27-year-old Latin men come, preferably shirtless.' — Queer Eye for the Straight Guy food guy Ted Allen to San Diego's Gay & Lesbian Times, Jan. 26.
'Many Americans, especially parents, still have deep concerns about the direction of our culture, and the health of our most basic institutions.They are concerned about unethical conduct by public officials, and discouraged by activist courts that try to redefine marriage.' — President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address, Jan. 31.
'I can't tell you the number of people who, after that first episode screened, said to me in all seriousness, 'I didn't know gay people could have sex face-to-face.'' — Queer As Folk actor Peter Paige ( Emmett ) to the Sydney Star Observer, Feb. 2.
'I do find I have to jump through hoops that other actors would not have to jump through. The combination of playing the queen, being on Queer As Folk and being openly gay is a trifecta of stereotyping which has allowed some casting people to say, 'He's not right for this.' So we are doing a lot of pushing [ to get me work since Queer As Folk ended ] , but that's all right as it was all worth it.' — Peter Paige.
'My least favorite is the current president because he's a liar. Bill Clinton was my favorite because—despite Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act—he had gay friends, he knew about gay people and that little opening made a lot more gay people come out.' — Lesbian comedian Kate Clinton to columnist Richard Burnett in the Montreal weekly newspaper Hour, Feb. 2.
'I've spent many years where networks and studios have said: 'We're only going to pay you this amount of money because we're taking such a big chance on you. You're openly gay. It's very risky to hire you—you big homo you.' Now that we have gay networks, I don't think I have to put up with that shit anymore. So Logo calls me all the time and asks me to do stuff, and they always ask me to do it for free. And I'm pretty insulted.' — Actor Harvey Fierstein to the gay magazine QVegas, February issue.
'I guess there are these people that are against everything I do, but I never come into contact with them. I judge success not by money or reviews. I think it's that you never have to meet assholes. I have achieved that success.' — Gay filmmaker John Waters to PlanetOut.com, Feb. 9.
''Gay activist' is a term evangelicals apply to any homosexual who isn't a gay doormat.' — Gay writer Dan Savage writing in The New York Times, Feb. 10.
'We're seeing people who become sex addicts and don't have a long history with the problem prior to going online. The Internet is the crack cocaine of sex addiction. Internet sex is not like porn where you have to leave your house and go to the bookstore. The Internet is accessible and also never-ending; there's always another image or person online—not to mention it's cheap as pasta.' — Psychotherapist Robert Weiss, author of the new book Cruise Control: Understanding Sex Addiction in Gay Men, to Advocate.com, Jan. 27.
