'Having so many friends who are gay and having a big gay following, I get hate mail and threats. Some people are blind or ignorant, and you can't be that prejudiced and hateful and go through this world and still be happy.' — Singer Dolly Parton to The Tennessean newspaper, Feb. 23.
'I don't feel the need to express my sexual being because it's not partof my sport and it's private. I can sleep with whomever I choose and it doesn't affect what I'm doing on the ice, so speculation is speculation. I like nice things, and beautiful things, so if that is the only way people are determining that I swing one way or the other, then to me, that's sad. You can't judge a book by it's cover, ever. ... I am who I am, and I don't need to justify anything to anyone.' — Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir writing on his Web site, as quoted by the Washington Post, Feb. 17.
'I think [ Here! TV ] started as a gay network, and I think that even though I am openly gay and quite up-front about it, I think they wanted me to bring some straight people to it. So I am counter-programming, and I am for that—I am against separatism. I think it's much more interesting when it's all kinds of people together.' — Filmmaker John Waters to Texas' Shout Magazine, Feb. 2. Waters' new series on the channel is 'John Waters Presents Movies That Will Corrupt You.'
'We envision a local culture that upholds the marriage of a woman to a man, and a man to a woman, as ordained of God. This culture affirms marriage as the best path to health, security, fulfillment, and joy. It casts the home built on marriage as the source of true political sovereignty and ordered liberty. It also holds the household framed by marriage to be the primary economic unit, a place marked by rich activity, material abundance, and broad self-reliance. This culture treasures private property in family hands as the rampart of independence and liberty. It celebrates the marital sexual union as the unique source of new human life. We see our homes as open to a full quiver of children, the source of family continuity and social growth. We envision young women growing into wives, homemakers, and mothers; and we see young men growing into husbands, home-builders, and fathers. ... We look to a landscape of family homes, lawns, and gardens busy with useful tasks and ringing with the laughter of many children.' — From the 'Resolution on The Natural Family: A Vision for Utah' passed unanimously in January by the Kanab ( Utah ) City Council.
'I guess when you reach your forties, you should expect your body to fall apart bit by bit. But there's something faintly embarrassing about my own acquired malfunctions. I snored too much; my teeth were falling apart; and I got plantar warts on my feet. CPAP machines are not exactly sexy; root canals are no fun; but having warts burned off your feet is another thing entirely. I've now gone through three separate burn-offs, and only a couple of teensy warts disappeared. So last Friday, the podiatrist went for what he called the nuclear option. He injected bleomycin crystals in liquid form into each wart. You just don't know how many nerve endings there are in your feet until someone sticks a needle in them.' — Gay writer Andrew Sullivan on his blog, Feb. 9.
' [ I ] f anyone reading this believes that gay men can actually become ex-gay men, I have just one question for you: Would you want your daughter to marry one? Evangelical Christians seem sincere in their desire to help build healthy, lasting marriages. Well, if that's their goal, encouraging gay men to enter into straight marriages is a peculiar strategy. Every straight marriage that includes a gay husband is one Web-browser-history check away from an ugly divorce. If anything, supporters of traditional marriage should want gay men out of the heterosexual marriage market entirely. And the best way to do that is to see that we're safely married off—to each other, not to your daughters.' — Gay writer Dan Savage writing in The New York Times, Feb. 10.
'It is very, very, very difficult for an American actor who wants a film career to be open about his sexuality. And even more difficult for a woman if she's lesbian. It's very distressing to me that that should be the case. It's not true of actors on the other side of the American continent, on Broadway, where people are very at ease with being open and honest. But the film industry is very old-fashioned in California.' — Actor Sir Ian McKellen speaking at the Berlin Film Festival, Feb. 11.
'The day I saw it, I sat behind four straight, early middle-aged, blue-collar blokes obviously dragged along by the wives and girlfriends who sat between them. Before the film started they cracked the lamest jokes about condoms and mounting, but five minutes in and for the rest of the film, they were silent, staring at the screens with mouths agape. The Brokeback [ Mountain ] world of poor-paid jobs, bad bosses, broken-down cars, monotonous food, poverty, uncertainty, anxiety, indignity, wives who don't understand and love besieged by circumstances—this film version of a Bruce Springsteen song—it's their world, one rarely if ever represented on the silver screen.' — Leading Australian gay activist Rodney Croome writing on his Web site, Feb. 2.
'I am writing to you from an alcohol treatment center where on Feb. 1, with the encouragement and support of my partner, daughters and colleagues, I checked myself in to deal with my increasing dependence on alcohol.' — New Hampshire bishop V. Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop, in an e-mail to clergy that was released by the New Hampshire diocese Feb. 14. Robinson's 2003 election as bishop has caused ongoing, serious conflict in the worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch.
'It's irresistible to have a part that takes only three minutes to do in the best thing about any movie, which is the trailer. I knew right off that this was a great art form.' — Writer Gore Vidal on a promo by gay Italian video artist Vezzoli for a new ( non-existent ) film version of Caligula, as quoted in the Feb. 26 New York Times.
'I would never wear them, put them on or separate them.' — Gay activist Tom Gregory, on spending more than $100,000 in an online auction for the two used plaid shirts worn by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain, as quoted in the March 6 issue of Newsweek.
'Until this new group of tenors emerged, female mezzo-sopranos would essentially gender-bend to play the roles that required countertenors.' — Jason A. Heideman writing on openly gay countertenor David Daniels, who is currently in the Lyric's production of Orfeo et Euridice, in Time Out Chicago, Feb. 23-March 2.
'I do think that we as a state ought to honor commitments, and we ought to reflect that in policies that we have. I personally don't think that it is fair ... for Britney Spears, who was married for 51 hours to some guy in Las Vegas ( for ) that guy ( to have ) more rights than someone who's been committed to another person for 25 years." — Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, expressing support for civil unions for committed gay couples, as quoted in the Des Moines Register. 'Vilsack, a Democrat, said marriage should continue to mean a union between a man and a woman, but he sees no need to put Iowa's law banning same-sex marriage in the state Constitution. He acknowledged that the Legislature was unlikely to share his support for granting civil unions,' the Register said.
