'Up yours.' — Sir Elton John when asked by Australia's Seven Network what he would say to Prime Minister John Howard about Howard's vocal opposition to same-sex marriage and civil unions, Nov. 27.
' [ Before I came out, ] I'd used that excuse that most people use—that it's nobody's business. But when it really came down to it, you don't hear straight people saying, 'No one needs to know whether I'm straight or not.' The only reason you don't tell people is because you're ashamed of it. Shame stifles you, whether it's your sexuality or something else.' — Ellen DeGeneres to the British lesbian glossy Diva, January issue.
'My sexuality comes up [ on my TV show ] occasionally if there's a very obvious joke lying there and I can get a very obvious laugh. Everybody's very aware that I'm gay, but it's not like I'm sitting there talking about my private life and sharing details—I'm aware of what the line is and I'm aware of what people are comfortable hearing about and knowing about, and I respect that. I've learned my lesson.' — Ellen DeGeneres to the British lesbian glossy Diva, January issue.
'The first time I went to a gay bar I was 17 years old. It was called the Hut and it was in Washington, D.C. Some referred to it as the Chicken Hut, and it was filled with early 1960s gay men in fluffy sweaters who cruised each other by calling table-to-table on phones provided by the bar. 'I may be queer but I ain't this,' I remember thinking.' — Filmmaker John Waters writing in The New York Times, Nov. 19.
'In the previous round of outing in the early '90s, everybody wanted to be first to be second. No one wanted to take the heat for starting it, but the blog phenomenon has changed that by lowering the threshold to the point that other media can't avoid it. What we are now seeing is Outing 2.0.' — University of Southern California Prof. Larry Gross, director of the Annenberg School of Communication and author of 'Contested Closets: The Politics and Ethics of Outing,' to the Los Angeles Times, Nov. 20.
'A Gay Pride concert in Moscow would be a brilliant idea. [ T ] here's a time when you have to step up. I never stood up to the Aids thing because I was in a drug haze—even though my friends were dying left, right and centre—I wasn't on the front line and I should have been. Maybe we [ gay pop-music acts ] should, en masse, go to Moscow next year, if they'll have us.' — Elton John to Britain's The Observer, Nov. 12. Moscow's mayor and courts banned last year's first gay pride march.
'People don't seem to protest in the streets any more; they are always blogging on the Internet. They seem to do their protesting online, and that's not good [ enough ] . You have got to get out there and be seen and be vocal, and you've got to do it time and time again. People have become apathetic.' — Elton John to Britain's The Observer, Nov. 12.
'Going against every pop star law, George Michael appears to be getting more interesting the older he gets. He says what he feels, does what he likes and gets the tabloids continually in a froth. We're lovin' that! ( Oh, and for the record, Outside is the best coming-out song ever. Bar none. ) ' — London's Gay Times, December issue.
'I hadn't been out for ages. And I went out last night on a bit of a bar crawl. I broke my phone, and got fined for peeing behind an electric power box. And it says on the fine, 'in full view of the public.' That was, like, four policemen in a van. And the one who was trying to give me the fine kept going, 'Are you Jimmy Somerville?' I was going, 'He is the one charging me. Could you be quiet?' and so he was going, 'If you give me any more lip, we'll drag you in the van.' So that was my night. I haven't really slept.' — Gay singer Jimmy Somerville to London's Pink Paper, Nov. 16.
'I've had it easy in the press, in comparison to what other people go through. I mean, they leave me alone, because from the very beginning, I just said, 'Yep, I suck cock. Fuck off.' So I think if you tell them that, and you're so crude about it, then they can't concoct any kind of issue from it, because I was straight in their faces from the beginning.' — Gay singer Jimmy Somerville to London's Pink Paper, Nov. 16.
'I don't see the purpose of talking about one's private life. It seems a waste of time to identify yourself by the occasional sexual preference. What's that about? 'I eat rice, but not potatoes.' 'So you're a rice person?' All this identification. Americans have the worst reputation as the most idiotic people on earth when it comes to talking about themselves. Nobody cares.' — Openly gay writer Gore Vidal, 81, to Out magazine, December issue.
'The news of Mary Cheney's pregnancy exemplifies, once again, how the best interests of children are denied when lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens are treated unfairly and accorded different and unequal rights and responsibilities than other parents.' — Family Pride Coalition Executive Director Jennifer Chrisler.
'The Bible does indeed mention gay sex. Sort of. But only if you choose as your personal vicious doctrine the conservative homophobic English version, with its many unhappy passages rewritten/interpreted quite intentionally ( and much more recently ) to sneer at gay sex. The original Hebrew and Greek texts themselves, on the other hand, have plenty to say about adultery and pedophilia, but contain not a single word on the notion of true, healthy, emotionally satisfying same-sex love.' — San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford, Nov. 15.
'He and I just like each other, and I think we set a good example here in the Senate. He's a Republican, I'm a Democrat, we work together on issues that are important to the state of Nevada. And I wish other people had the same nonaggression pact we have. It's not a 'Brokeback Mountain' situation.' — U.S. Senate Majority Leader-elect Harry Reid of Nevada talking about fellow Nevada Senator John Ensign, as quoted by the Associated Press, Nov. 15.
'I am so stressed out over Shortbus. I have worked so hard on this movie but I can't even sleep through a full night. I take Ambien every night just to get five hours of sleep if I am lucky.' — Gay writer/director/producer John Cameron Mitchell on his new critically acclaimed film Shortbus, to the Palm Springs gay magazine The Bottom Line, Nov. 10. The film is unusual in that the characters have actual sex onscreen.
'I believe that the don't ask, don't tell policy is working in the military. ... I believe in the sanctity and unique role of marriage between man and woman. But I certainly don't believe in discriminating against any American. ... I do believe that people ought to be able to enter into contracts, exchange powers of attorney, other ways that people who have relationships can enter into. ... I just want to point out again, I believe that gay marriage should not be legal, OK? But I don't believe that we should discriminate against any American because that's not the nature of American, OK? ... I don't believe we should discriminate against anyone in the workplace. But I don't think we need specific laws that would apply necessarily to people who are gay.' — U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who apparently is running for president, to ABC News, Nov. 19.
Also contributing: Andrew Davis
