"Some time ago, I was walking down the street, and this fortune teller grabbed me and dragged me back to her shop, very panicked. She said: "I have to tell you something. Your vagina is haunted. You have to get rid of this demon, or you will never have a happy relationship; you will never have good sex; you will never be happy.' I was really freaked out. She wanted me to give her all this money so she could do some spell on my vagina." --Comedian Margaret Cho ( pictured ) to the New York Post, Aug. 17.
"Barack Obama will close the book on the old politics of race and gender and group against groups, and straight against gay." --U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., speaking to the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 25.
"Manhunt's annual income from memberships alone is roughly the same as the total amount of individual contributions to this country's two biggest gay political groups, the Human Rights Campaign and NGLTF. ( Former NGLTF Executive Director Matt ) Foreman says, "If we could leverage their membership for activism, there's no limit to what we could do.'" --Journalist and author Michael Joseph Gross writing in Out magazine, September issue.
"When we started cruising online, neither I nor any of my friends would have dreamed we'd post naked pictures of ourselves for strangers to see. Now almost all of us have done it. When we crossed that line most of us felt we were violating ourselves. But it got us laid. We took more pictures"better ones"because the hotter our pictures, the more we got laid. When we questioned our choices, we reminded ourselves, "We're gay, this is our culture, Manhunt is the 21st-century gay bar, and you can't stop progress.' Besides, every fuck, we rationalized, was another chance to find a boyfriend. Yet the more we did this, the fainter grew the hope of finding something more meaningful than a hookup. As our hopes faded, we learned to see one another, and finally even ourselves, as things." --Journalist and author Michael Joseph Gross writing in Out magazine, September issue.
"I think these last 10 years have seen just a huge shift in the psyche of this country as regards gay people. I think AIDS had a lot to do with it. So many families who really believed they'd "never met one' were suddenly confronted with their sons becoming ill, and friends of sons. I think that brought a lot of it into the open. Certainly groups like ACT UP ( and ) Larry Kramer brought a lot of it into the open. But I think there also has just been a willingness on the parts of people like myself, people like Melissa Etheridge or Elton ( John ) , to stand up and be counted that has hopefully lent some bravery to people who are not in ( the public eye ) ." --Out singer Janis Ian to Time magazine, Aug. 7.
"Here is the hard truth"if you are looking for a life partner the numbers are not in your favor. If you take the total number of gay men in your city, subtract the number you are not sexually compatible with, minus the ones who have deal-breaking habits, minus the guys who you have nothing in common with, minus the pathological closet cases who play straight while playing around online, minus the ones who just plain annoy you"the universe of potential mates is remarkably limited. This harsh reality is true for gay men in large cities and especially for rural gay men who can't find a hunk in Podunk." --Syndicated columnist Wayne Besen, Aug. 12.
"I don't think about being an icon really. The gay fans have always been very loyal, they are a really great audience and have always been there for me." --Singer Olivia Newton-John to AfterElton.com, Aug. 13.
--Assistance: Bill Kelley