...MY GAY FANS can be a little more enthusiastic —Singer Chaka Khan ( pictured ) to St. Louis' EXP Magazine, October issue.
'Dumbledore is gay. ... If I had known this would have made you so happy, I would have told you years ago.' — Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling speaking at Carnegie Hall in New York City, Oct. 19.
'When J.K. Rowling announced at Carnegie Hall that Albus Dumbledore—her Aslan, her Gandalf, her Yoda—was gay, the crowd apparently sat in silence for a few seconds and then burst into wild applause. I'm still sitting in silence. Dumbledore himself never saw fit to come out of the closet before dying in book six. And I feel a bit like I did when we learned too much about Mark Foley and Larry Craig: You are not quite the role model I'd hoped for as a gay man. I'm not defending the closet, a perilous and sad place. But I don't see how Rowling's outing of Dumbledore strikes a blow for gay equality so great that even Carnegie Hall—cathedral of the arts, cynosure of homosexuals—should erupt in joy.' — John Cloud writing in Time magazine, Oct. 23.
'No, I am not open to persuasion myself, but the idea of homosexuality is acceptable to me. I grew up in a city where half the people I know are gay. Both of my godfathers are gay.' — Actor Jake Gyllenhaal ( Brokeback Mountain ) to London's Telegraph, Oct. 21.
' [ I ] n places like New York I think Pride is rather redundant, whereas in a place like Selma it's just as scary to be out now as it was decades ago.' — Gay filmmaker John Waters to the Carolinas gay newspaper Q-Notes, Oct. 20.
'I did 210 weddings when I was mayor of New York City. So I have experience doing this. They were all men and women. I hope. You got to give me a little slack here. It was New York City, you know.' — Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani during an Oct. 21 candidates debate in Florida.
'You want the word 'marriage' and I believe that the issue of marriage has become so entangled—the word 'marriage' has become so entangled with religion—that it makes more sense for me as president, with that authority, to talk about the civil rights that are conferred [ with civil unions ] .' — Presidential candidate Barack Obama speaking in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Oct. 29.
'Larry Craig ... consciously or not, is calling the whole moral brigade's bluff. After he was busted in the Minneapolis airport, Republicans insisted he undergo an ethics committee investigation on the assumption that he'd disappear before they could conduct it. Now they will have to make good on their word. Mr. Craig is not just refusing to leave, but, as he demonstrated to Matt Lauer, he is ready, willing and able to re-enact his toilet pas de deux on national television. The Larry Craig show could be C-Span's hit of the election season. It will culminate with its star's return to the scene of the crime during the Republican National Convention, which, as perverse poetic justice would have it, is taking place in Minneapolis.' — New York Times columnist Frank Rich, Oct. 28.
' [ S ] qualid, anonymous toilet sex isn't something most openly gay men engage in. It is, for the most part, the preferred mode of sexual expression for closeted gay and bisexual men. Cruisy toilets and parks, while frequented by some openly gay men ( none of whom ever seem to get caught, however ) , are primarily patronized by straight-identified closet cases, married men, losers, and priests—hell, the existence of cruisy toilets and parks make it possible for many of these men to remain closeted. ... Unless the police are careful to avoid arresting men with rainbow stickers on their cars, the arrest records prove what most gay men know to be true: cruisy toilets and parks are for messy closet cases, not healthy, sexually adventurous gay dudes.' — Gay writer Dan Savage on his blog, Oct. 30.
—Assistance: Bill Kelley