'My thoughts are that I think that people should be able to enter into legal agreements and I think that is something that we should encourage, particularly in the case of insurance and other areas, decisions that have to be made. I just believe in the unique marriage between man and woman. And I know that we have a respectful disagreement on that issue.' — John McCain on Ellen DeGeneres' TV show May 22 when she asked him: 'Let's talk about the big elephant in the room. ... I legally now can get married, like everyone should. ... So I'm obviously excited and, to me, this is only fair, and only natural. What are your thoughts?'
'Uh-huh. Yeah. I think that it is looked at and some people are saying the same that blacks and women did not have the right to vote. I mean, women just got the right to vote in 1920. Blacks didn't have the right to vote till 1870 and it just feels like there's this old way of thinking that we are not all the same. We are all the same people. All of us. You're no different than I am. Our love is the same. To me, what it feels like—just, you know, I will speak for myself—it feels when someone says you can have a contract and you'll still have insurance and you'll get all that. It sounds to me like saying, well, you can sit there ( she points in one direction ) , you just can't sit there ( she points another direction ) . That's what it sounds like to me. It doesn't feel inclusive. It feels isolated. It feels like we are not owed the same things and the same wording.' — Ellen DeGeneres in response to John McCain ( previous quote ) on her TV show, May 22.
'This is very exciting, I gotta say. Yesterday, if you haven't heard, the California Supreme Court overturned a ban on gay marriage. So I would like to say right now for the first time, I am announcing I am getting married. OK, thank you. I am—I will—thank you, I'll tell you who the lucky guy is soon. And, uh, I'm so excited. If I'm this emotional now just saying it, I can't imagine how that's gonna be, but it's something that I've, of course, we've wanted to do, and we want it to be legal and we're just very, very excited.' — Ellen DeGeneres on her TV show, May 16. Fiancée Portia de Rossi was in the audience grinning.
'A court striking down a law supported by large majorities is not antithetical to our system of government. Such a judicial act is central to our system of government. That's because, strictly speaking, the U.S. is not a 'democracy' as much as it is a 'constitutional republic,' precisely because constitutional guarantees trump democratic majorities. This is all just seventh-grade civics. ... Anyone who argues that a court is acting improperly solely by virtue of the fact that it is striking down a popular law is someone who doesn't believe in the American system of government created by the Founders.' — Salon.com columnist Glenn Greenwald writing about the California marriage decision, May 22.
'Brad and I have shared our lives together for over 21 years. ... He is my love and I can't imagine life without him. Now, we can have the dignity, as well as all the responsibilities, of marriage. We embrace it all heartily. ... No more 'separate but equal.' No more second-class citizenship. Brad and I are going to be married as full citizens of our state.' — Actor George Takei ( Star Trek's Sulu ) announcing his engagement to partner Brad Altman, May 16.
'You ( gay celebrities ) get a lot of baggage coming at you from the gay world—to behave in a certain manner, to say a certain thing and be a certain person. And I've always been very lefty, very urban and very downtown in the way that I deliver my message, and that's very hard on a lot of middle-class, mainstream quote-unquote gay people. I've never been one of 'the gays'—I've always been one of the queers.' — Comic/singer/actress Lea DeLaria to the Kansas gay magazine Liberty Press, April issue.
—Assistance: Bill Kelley
