'I've done a lot of sexual exploring—a lot. I'm like a sexual Captain Nemo. But it really hasn't given me anything emotional in the end. In the end, I've felt quite bankrupt. I'm happy about what happened, but I'm really looking for love.' — Openly gay singer Rufus Wainwright to D.C.'s MetroWeekly, Sept. 25.
'By year's end, local health officials estimate there will be 750 new syphilis cases in San Francisco, compared to 494 last year and 10 cases in 1998. Most of the new cases are among gay and bisexual men.' — The San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 26.
'Europeans are so much more open to nudity than Americans, it makes sense to me that Schwarzenegger, as a European, would pose nude and have it be no big deal. Robert did not have sex with Arnold, though. He had sex with a lot of his models, but not with him.' — Jack Fritscher, ex-lover of the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, confirming to PlanetOut.com Sept. 26 that Mapplethorpe did take nude photos of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Fritscher said he has sold some of them on eBay.
'I get checked out a lot by gay guys now and I feel more comfortable. It makes me feel good. It might sound weird coming from a straight guy, but if gay guys are checking you out, then you know you're good-looking, you know?' — John Bargeman of Jersey City, N.J., who was made over by Queer Eye for the Straight Guy's Fab Five on the July 29 episode, to the Union City Reporter, Sept. 28.
'I keep looking around for someone, anyone to say something, anything about the incessant bile about gay and lesbian people that is spewed forth daily by some of the world's so called spiritual leaders. I keep looking around for someone to finally say: 'Enough! This has got to stop.' And what I see when I turn around is a bunch of folks who have taken a step to the rear. Sadly and shockingly our major gay political groups are the most conspicuous in their silence.' — David Lee, co-creator of TV's Frasier, accepting an award at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Leadership Awards Sept. 28 in Los Angeles.
'As an American I understand that Islam is not the enemy. But what about as a gay man? Have we forgotten that there is no sect of Islam worth considering that even tolerates homosexuality, and in countries where Islam predominates, punishment can be anything from imprisonment to torture to disfigurement to death. Islam may not be the enemy of my country, but I'd be hard-pressed to find a bigger enemy of gay people. Islam is perpetrating a massive, egregious assault on human rights—and what does the Human Rights Campaign have to say?' — David Lee.
'What I think I do is that I play a comedy as if it's a drama. I play it high-stakes, and that makes it funnier. If you really invest in the character's little details, then it makes that character much funnier.' — Will & Grace's Megan Mullally (Karen) to the Houston Voice, Sept. 26.
'Suddenly it crossed over and it became much more commercial and now you can find gay at Target.' — Sandra Bernhard on the VH1 program Totally Gay, Sept. 19.
'I hope that lesbians are less politically correct than they were 10 years ago. It has its place but it also becomes another kind of prison.' — Advocate Editorial Director Judy Wieder on the VH1 program Totally Gay, Sept. 19.
'Out lesbian Ellen DeGeneres is having fun on her new talk show, but she's coming off completely sexless (unless you count her saying Brad Pitt is perfect and acting a bit smitten with Justin Timberlake). It's like the early days of Rosie all over again! I totally understand that Ellen was the world's first pet lesbo—a same-sex guinea pig, in a way—and as such, she suffered all kinds of disdain, but I'd hoped that by now, she'd be able to sapphically rise above all that and not do an Anne Heche.' — Village Voice columnist Michael Musto, Sept. 15.
'I don't know what the rest of the world's going through but I know how much fun I'm having.' — Melissa Etheridge talking about dildos on the VH1 program Totally Gay, Sept. 19.
'I released three albums before I came out and each of them sold just under a million—probably 900,000 each. After I came out, in America alone I sold 6 million records. So, I can't imagine that I've lost any fans.' — Melissa Etheridge on the VH1 program Totally Gay, Sept. 19.
'I have never made out with a woman off-camera. I have to admit that I like being paid for it. Does that make me a whore?' — Mariel Hemingway on the VH1 program Totally Gay, Sept. 19.
'George Bush's poll numbers began seriously dwindling, Karl Rove and the White House political strategists decided to reach into their bag of tricks and come up with a good old staple of reactionary politics: homophobia. The decision to scapegoat gay and lesbian Americans was poll-driven by an antigay backlash that gathered steam in the wake of the Supreme Court's June 26 decision, in Lawrence v. Texas, striking down laws making gay sex between consenting adults illegal—the so-called sodomy laws. The backlash first surfaced in a July 25-27 Gallup poll. It showed that support for legalizing gay sex had plummeted a dramatic twelve points, to only 48 percent, down from a comfortable 60 percent in favor of legalization in Gallup's May survey. ... Just two days after Gallup released its poll showing the backlash, Bush unexpectedly used a Rose Garden press conference to announce that he'd assigned lawyers to come up with a plan to stop gay marriage. ... On July 29 the Senate Republican Policy Committee adopted a twelve-page policy paper declaring that gay marriage was a 'threat' to the established social order. ... At the state level, too, Republican antigay initiatives are snowballing. In Wisconsin, despite the fact that state law already bans same-sex marriage, forty-nine legislators—saying the existing statute is 'too vague'—have introduced a new Defense of Marriage Act with even tougher language, and it took less than a minute for the Wisconsin Assembly's Judiciary Committee to pass it 6 to 0 on September 11.' — From a column titled 'Republicans Relaunch the Antigay Culture Wars,' by Doug Ireland, The Nation, Oct. 20.
'Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez announced four more cities will participate in the Reaching the Dream Initiative to encourage more faith-based and smaller grassroots organizations across America to promote homeownership. The Reaching the Dream initiative will help faith-based and community grassroots organizations in Atlanta, Albuquerque, Chicago and, Nashville to establish homebuyer awareness programs in these areas. ... The Reaching the Dream initiative is designed to bring faith-based and community organizations, financial institutions, local officials and others together to address the needs of first-time homebuyers in their communities ... President Bush is proposing to increase this program to $45 million.' — HUD press release. More erosions of the separation between church and state, and more funds for church-based supporters of Bush.
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