Larry was not a second-class citizen, I am not a second-class citizen, it is OK if you're gay. —Ellen DeGeneres
'It's fast approaching the end of the Bush era, 12 combined years of miserable, silver-spoon governorship by one of the lumpiest, dorkiest, least appealing clans of desperately shrill powermongers in the world, Barb and Jeb and George and George Jr., Laura and Barb Jr. and Jenna and beer bongs and fake IDs and old coke habits and running AWOL from the Air National Guard and it's all felt like a particularly insufferable episode of 'The Beverly Hillbillies,' wherein the Clampetts go to Washington and screw three generations out of any sense of hope or environmental protections while getting the world to despise us for everything we used to stand for. Wacky!' — San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford, Feb. 22.
'I have 24 [ birds ] now. ... Nothing else matters to me but my birds. They were born into a life that's just not fair. I do the best I can. They're not caged, they get the best food. I don't know what I did in my life to deserve these beautiful creatures. They can live to be over 100. I say to my Gino, 'You're gonna miss me one day, Gino.' And I have my big homosexual bird, Reggie. I love him so much. He's gay, though. There are girls around but he just loves the boys. I'm at peace with myself when I'm around those birds.' — Former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss during an interview about Gov. Elliot Spitzer with Newsweek stringer Steve Friess, March 11. See tinyurl.com/256zox.
'After months of lurid clamor, Senator Larry Craig has been formally rebuked by the Senate ethics committee for his run-in with the vice squad last summer in an airport men's room. The committee concluded that the Idaho Republican brought discredit on the Senate. After all the controversy, the committee acted without holding a public inquiry and it did not levy any punishment. Nothing much results from the rebuke, except for the committee's grave statement of wounded decorum. Senator Craig continues to serve Idaho. The ethics committee disappears once more behind its Oz-like curtain.' — The New York Times editorial board writing on its blog, Feb. 20.
'I love to tell the story of the fact that a year ago we celebrated our 10th anniversary at the White House holiday party. And I got to say to the president of the United States: 'Mr. President, I think you remember meeting my partner Lauren. It's our anniversary tonight!' To which he responded, 'Well, how many years has it been?' And we told him, 'Ten years, Mr. President.'' — Openly lesbian U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., to the newsletter of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, in the current issue of the undated publication.
'Gay identity is largely the product of anti-gay repression. It is a self-defence mechanism against homophobia. Faced with persecution for having same-sex relations, the right to have those relationships had to be defended—hence gay identity and the gay rights movement. But if one sexuality is not privileged over another, defining oneself as gay ( or straight ) will cease to be necessary and have no social relevance or significance.' — Leading British gay activist Peter Tatchell writing for The Guardian, Feb. 14.
'On Feb. 12, an openly gay 15-year-old boy named Larry, who was an eighth-grader in Oxnard, Calif., was murdered by a fellow eighth-grader named Brandon. Larry was killed because he was gay. Days before he was murdered, Larry asked his killer to be his valentine. ... [ S ] omewhere along the line the killer, Brandon, got the message that it's so threatening and so awful and so horrific that Larry would want to be his valentine that killing Larry seemed to be the right thing to do. And when the message out there is so horrible that to be gay you can get killed for it, we need to change the message. ... Larry was not a second-class citizen, I am not a second-class citizen, it is OK if you're gay.' — Ellen DeGeneres on her TV talk show, Feb. 29.
'This is an election year and there's a lot of talk about change. I think one thing we should change is hate. Check on who you're voting for, and does that person really, truly believe that we are all equal under the law? And if you're not sure, change your vote. We deserve better.' — Ellen DeGeneres on her TV talk show, Feb. 29.
'The reason I have always supported the entire gay community is because they have kept her name iconic. They have been supportive, but what was really interesting, if you went to see my mother's concerts when she was performing, the audience wasn't a gay audience. It was really after she passed away and what happened at Stonewall, that's when the gay community took her as their own.' — Lorna Luft, Judy Garland's daughter, to London's Pink Paper, Jan. 24.
—Assistance: Bill Kelley
