Cohen._____________
' [ S ] ome gay teenagers, having seen one extremely flattering press photo of me ( I wish I looked like the picture on my Wikipedia page ) , send offers, along with pictures or links to MySpace pages. And what do I do with these e-mails? I delete them. ... I have to admit to having been tempted—some of these guys are hot and, like [ former U.S. Rep. Mark ] Foley's pages, above the age of consent. But it would be professional and personal suicide for me to respond to these e-mails. Imagine the shitstorm if a parent found flirtatious e-mails from the middle-aged, openly gay author of America's sleaziest sex-advice column on their kid's computer. And I'm just paranoid enough to suspect that some of these e-mails—particularly the ones from very young boys who attach photos that look a little pornified—are setups. Ruining Rick Santorum's good name hasn't exactly endeared me to the knuckle-draggers on the far right.' — Syndicated columnist Dan Savage in his Oct. 10 column. ( To understand the Santorum reference, see www.spreadingsantorum.com . )
'That this [ the Mark Foley scandal ] happened to the GOP is too, too much. ... It was the GOP that cozied up to churches and preachers who likened homosexuals to the vilest people of all time and called on them to cease their wicked ways, go from homosexual to heterosexual, which everyone knows they can do but will not because, apparently, it is easier to be gay and reviled than it is to be straight and comfy about it.' — Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, Oct. 17.
'If anything good has come out of the [ Mark ] Foley scandal, it is surely this: The revelation that the political party fond of demonizing homosexuals each election year is as well-stocked with trusted and accomplished gay leaders as virtually every other power center in America. ... The split between the Republicans' outward homophobia and inner gayness isn't just hypocrisy; it's pathology. Take the bizarre case of Karl Rove. Every one of his Bush campaigns has been marked by a dirty dealing of the gay card, dating back to the lesbian whispers that pursued Ann Richards when Mr. Bush ousted her as Texas governor in 1994. Yet we now learn from 'The Architect,' the recent book by the Texas journalists James Moore and Wayne Slater, that Mr. Rove's own ( and beloved ) adoptive father, Louis Rove, was openly gay in the years before his death in 2004. This will be a future case study for psychiatric clinicians as well as historians.' — New York Times columnist Frank Rich, Oct. 15.
'This is an election unlike any other I have ever participated in. For six years this country has been totally dominated—not by the Republican Party, this is not fair to the Republican Party—by a narrow sliver of the Republican Party, its more right-wing and its most ideological element. When the chips are down, this country has been jammed to the right, jammed into an ideological corner, alienated from its allies, and we're in a lot of trouble.' — Bill Clinton speaking in Las Vegas Oct. 12, according to AP.
'I used to think that gay visibility was all that was necessary. It turns out that is not true. Many people know us and even love us, but still vote for homophobic politicians and for referendums limiting the legal rights of gays to marry. We must all begin explaining to our heterosexual friends the various ways in which the law treats gays unequally and deprives us of rights they take for granted. These things are familiar to us, but many heterosexuals have never thought about it because they have no reason to, and won't do so until we bring it to their attention.' — Syndicated gay-press columnist Paul Varnell in a September filing.
