First photo: Bruce Vilanch by Rex Wockner
Second photo: Singer Rufus Wainwright
Third Photo Edmund White by Rex Wockner
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'Marriage Protection Week provides an opportunity to focus our efforts on preserving the sanctity of marriage and on building strong and healthy marriages in America. Marriage is a union between a man and a woman, and my Administration is working to support the institution of marriage by helping couples build successful marriages and be good parents. ... Research has shown that, on average, children raised in households headed by married parents fare better than children who grow up in other family structures. ... We must support the institution of marriage and help parents build stronger families. And we must continue our work to create a compassionate, welcoming society, where all people are treated with dignity and respect.' — George W. Bush proclaiming Oct. 12-18 'Marriage Protection Week,' Oct. 3.
'I am for equal rights for all. I do not support gay marriage. Marriage is unique to a man and woman. That said, I do believe that gay couples are entitled to full protection under the law and should not be discriminated against based on their relationship.' — California Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger on his campaign Web site, Oct. 13.
'To say that marriage is sacred is a ludicrous idea. Fucking Carmen Electra and Dennis Rodman got married, and Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson got married. Now that is not sacred, I don't care, that's fucking stupid, you know, and I'm not buying it.' — Comedian Margaret Cho to the Florida gay publication Contax Guide, Sept. 25.
'In California everybody is going to vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger because people are so stupid here that they think he actually is a robot from the future and that he can dissolve Gray Davis with a laser in his eye.' — Cho.
'One woman's grope is another woman's caress. ... He [Arnold Schwarzenegger] said to me in that wonderful Yugoslavian accent of his, he saw there was a bit of lint on my bodice and he lightly brushed it off—one bodice and then off the other bodice. And then he was interested in my snuggly fitting Donna Karan jeans, so he just slid his hand down there and had a look at the label. That's all.' — Dame Edna on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Oct. 2.
'Homosexuality, as we understand it as an orientation, is not mentioned in the Bible. I think the confirmation of the [openly gay and sexually active] bishop of New Hampshire is acknowledging what is already a reality in the life of the church and the larger society of which we are a part.' — Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold to the Associated Press, Sept. 29.
'Simply put, there is no evidence to support a ban on gays in the military. If you can serve as a police officer, an FBI agent, or a Member of Congress, there is no reason why you cannot serve as a soldier, sailor, airman or marine.' — Bill Clinton in a letter to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network that was made public Oct. 6.
'What does it take to raise a million dollars? Ten millionaires who will never know the money is missing from their bank account to stand up and give $100,000, and tonight ... I'm going to give the first $100,000 and ask if there are nine other people who can please do it.' — Rosie O'Donnell pledging money to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force at the group's Leadership Awards Sept. 28 in Los Angeles.
'Now my mom is like Mrs. PFLAG. She's got Web sites on the Internet and she's known because of The Amazing Race for being this big supporter of gay rights. She's completely done a one-eighty and has become a role model for so many parents.' — Reichen Lehmkuhl, winner (with ex-husband Chip Arndt) of the summer installment of TV's The Amazing Race, to D.C.'s Metro Weekly, Oct. 2.
'I met Chip on January 12, 1999, at a party. I first saw him literally across a crowded smoky room. I was just smitten by him and thought he was so handsome. I approached him, pulled him into a stairwell and I kissed him. And he said, 'Who the fuck are you?' That's how we met.' — Reichen Lehmkuhl, winner (with ex-husband Chip Arndt) of the summer installment of TV's The Amazing Race, to D.C.'s Metro Weekly, Oct. 2.
'The day after we won, they called us into a meeting and said: 'We're not going to show The Amazing Race next week like we had planned. We're going to wait six months.' We weren't even allowed to tell anyone we had done The Amazing Race. And they told us that if the press found out that we were the ones who won, we would be sued for fifteen million dollars. So Chip and I only had each other for six months as a sounding board. And that put a lot of stress on the both of us because we had a lot of arguments. We kind of started falling apart. ... We're broken up [now]. It was official this past Sunday. We've been trying since we got back from the race to get along and work things out and it just wasn't happening. ... We're very sad about it. I still cry once a day.' — Reichen Lehmkuhl, winner (with ex-husband Chip Arndt) of the summer installment of TV's The Amazing Race, to D.C.'s Metro Weekly, Oct. 2.
'It's tempting to think there are two gay Americas, one frightened and one fabulous, a merely gay America and a fully Queer America. An America where the gay bars darken their windows to hide ashamed patrons, and an America where straight people stand in line to get into gay clubs. An America where the June 26 Supreme Court decision legalizing sodomy had more than symbolic consequences, since gay sex was still a crime in 13 states. And an America where instead of arresting gays, the police help clear the streets every June for pride parades, which of course include contingents of gay cops.' — Time magazine, Oct. 5.
'The majority of social conservatives oppose gay marriage; they oppose gay citizens serving their country in the military; they oppose gay citizens raising children; they oppose protecting gay citizens from workplace discrimination; they oppose including gays in hate-crime legislation, while including every other victimized group; they oppose civil unions; they oppose domestic partnerships; they oppose ... well, they oppose, for the most part, every single practical measure that brings gay citizens into the mainstream of American life. This is simply bizarre. Can you think of any other legal, noncriminal minority in society toward which social conservatives have nothing but a negative social policy?' — Gay journalist Andrew Sullivan writing in The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 8.
'Each week this team of gay fashionistas transform a style-starved heterosexual into a dashing, groomed and often hairless metrosexual. And in doing so Carson, Thom, Ted, Kyan and Jai do more for the acceptance of gays than a decade of mardi gras parades.' — Columnist Sally Morrell writing on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy in Melbourne, Australia's Herald Sun, Oct. 8.
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