'We're ( David Furnish and I ) not married. Let's get that right. We have a civil partnership.What is wrong with Proposition 8 is that they went for marriage. Marriage is going to put a lot of people off, the word marriage. I don't want to be married. I'm very happy with a civil partnership. If gay people want to get married, or get together, they should have a civil partnership. The word marriage, I think, puts a lot of people off. You get the same equal rights that we do when we have a civil partnership. Heterosexual people get married. We can have civil partnerships.' — Elton John ( pictured ) to USA Today, Nov. 12.
'Watching the returns on election night was an amazing experience. Barack Obama is our new president. Change is here. I, like millions of Americans, felt like we had taken a giant step towards equality. We were watching history. This morning, when it was clear that Proposition 8 had passed in California, I can't explain the feeling I had. I was saddened beyond belief. Here we just had a giant step toward equality and then on the very next day, we took a giant step away. I believe one day a 'ban on gay marriage' will sound totally ridiculous. In the meantime, I will continue to speak out for equality for all of us.' — Ellen DeGeneres on her Web site, Nov. 5.
'Okay. So Prop 8 passed. Alright, I get it. 51% of you think that I am a second class citizen. Alright then. So my wife, uh I mean, roommate? Girlfriend? Special lady friend? You are gonna have to help me here because I am not sure what to call her now. Anyways, she and I are not allowed the same right under the state constitution as any other citizen. Okay, so I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen. I mean that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books.' — Melissa Etheridge writing at The Daily Beast, Nov. 6.
' ( R ) ight-wing forces led by the Mormon Church poured tens of millions of dollars into the campaign for Proposition 8—a measure to enshrine bigotry in the state's Constitution by preventing people of the same sex from marrying. The measure was designed to overturn May's State Supreme Court decision, which made California the second state to end that exclusion of same-sex couples. ... Apart from creating legal uncertainty about the thousands of same-sex marriages that have been performed in California and giving rise to lawsuits challenging whether the rules governing ballot measures were properly followed, the immediate impact of Tuesday's rights-shredding exercise is to underscore the danger of allowing the ballot box to be used to take away people's fundamental rights.' — New York Times editorial, Nov. 6.
'They had a very, very strong campaign, the pro-Proposition 8 people, and I think that the people that tried to defeat it did not have, maybe, as good a campaign or had as much money behind it, whatever. I think it is unfortunate, obviously, but it's not the end, because I think this will go back into the courts, this will go back to the Supreme Court because the Supreme Court very clearly in California has declared this unconstitutional. It's the same as in the 1948 case when blacks and whites were not allowed to marry. This falls into the same category. So, I think that we will again, you know, maybe undo that, if the court is willing to do that, and then move forward from there and again lead in that area. ... Because of the big turnout amongst African-Americans and Latinos, that had an effect also, which they did not expect, so there's all kinds of other things there. And I think the religious groups have done a really big campaign, a lot of them, to support Proposition 8, and so on, and so it's a very, very difficult thing. ... ( Y ) ou should never ever give up. ... They ( gays ) should never give up. They should be on it and on it until they get it done.' — California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to CNN, Nov. 9.
'The No ( on Prop 8 ) side ( was ) ahead by double-digit margins throughout most of the pre-television campaign stages. However, as the TV advertising hit in mid to late September, the Yes campaign ads proved to be more effective, and the polls showed the No side advantage slipping. The movement continued into and through the final weekend of the election when the churches and various religious groups made a concerted effort to win over the support of their congregations. The evidence shows that they were successful.' — Mark DiCamillo, director of California's The Field Poll, writing at Pollster.com, Nov. 7.
'I'm a big lesbian who looks like a man. I am not, like, Anchor Babe, and I'm never gonna be.' — MSNBC talk show host Rachel Maddow as quoted by Out.com, Nov. 4.
'It's often said that Tom ( of Finland's ) greatest achievement was in drawing gay men who were masculine, happy and proud at a time when they were supposed to be effeminate, neurotic and shameful. This is certainly the reason why so many gay men are Tom devotees, wittingly or not. Today's gay porn is merely footnotes to Tom, endlessly replaying the narrative of 'regular guys' with very irregular-sized penises and pectorals having spontaneous, shameless sex at the drop of a monkey wrench.' — Martin Simpson, writing in The Times of London, Nov. 3.
—Assistance: Bill Kelley