"I was already a supporter of Obama before he declared his candidacy and remember discussing it with friends. If you look at LGBT rights in the U.S., 'DOMA' and 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' were passed under Clinton. But having said that, looking at the situation of the world and the U.S. in particular I think that there are too many hopes in President Obama and he will hardly be able to satisfy everyone, LGBT community included. Still, I believe he will do better than Clinton. A first step, that will not cost him anything, will be to put the signature of the U.S. on the ( recent ) U.N. statement which already 66 countries endorsed ( that calls for the decriminalization of gay sex worldwide and affirms that international human rights standards include protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity ) ." — Moscow Pride founder Nikolai Alekseev ( pictured ) to this column, Jan. 18.
"Even were the public still in the mood for fiery invective about family values, the G.O.P. has long since lost any authority to lead the charge. The current Democratic president and his family are exemplars of precisely the Eisenhower-era squareness—albeit refurbished by feminism—that the Republicans often preached but rarely practiced. Obama actually walks the walk. As the former Bush speechwriter David Frum recently wrote, the new president is an 'apparently devoted husband and father' whose worst vice is 'an occasional cigarette.'" — New York Times columnist Frank Rich, March 14.
"The two top candidates for leader of the post-Bush G.O.P, Rush and Newt, have six marriages between them. The party that once declared war on unmarried welfare moms, homosexual 'recruiters' and Bill Clinton's private life has been rebranded by Mark Foley, Larry Craig, David Vitter and the irrepressible Palins." — New York Times columnist Frank Rich, March 14.
"The family-values dinosaurs that once stalked the earth—Falwell, Robertson, Dobson and Reed—are now either dead, retired or disgraced. ... Americans have less and less patience for the intrusive and divisive moral scolds who thrived in the bubbles of the Clinton and Bush years. Culture wars are a luxury the country—the G.O.P. included—can no longer afford." — New York Times columnist Frank Rich, March 14.
"Believe me, I think motherhood would be amazing and exciting and wonderful, but it isn't really something that's on the immediate horizon for us. How this IVF rumor started, I really, really have no idea. But I can tell you that it is definitely not happening in the near future. ... It's great that Ellen ( DeGeneres ) and I are a gay couple and people are open-minded enough to talk about us having a family. The only thing I'm trying to avoid by denying it is, I just don't want those horrible pictures in magazines where they circle your stomach and point and go 'baby bump!'" — Actress Portia de Rossi to the Los Angeles Times, March 15.
"It is a question we all must ask ourselves: Am I a top or a bottom? I have posed this question to myself many a time and find difficulty settling on an answer. However, now that I have started seeing someone—a man—I know I need to find a clear and decisive answer." — Columnist Trevor Nutley in the Vancouver gay newspaper Xtra! West, Feb. 26.
"It is exhilarating to see Bush gone and, for the first time in a while, actually believe something positive could take hold—for us ( GLBT people ) and for the world. Make no mistake; we will be fighting all kinds of battles. Rick Warren was nothing. We'll be disappointed and even outraged at Obama, at the Democrats, at the media and at assorted other sellouts. But at least we're in the game. What we must do is finally learn to play that game well. These are politicians—there are no saviors, so people should just forget that kind of thinking—and they respond only to pressure and a show of power. We've got to use our collective power right instead of being used as doormats. That's another discussion, and we're all going to have to finally stand up to the doormat crowd in our movement and give them the boot. For now though, I'm relieved, excited and totally ready for the next phase." — Gay Sirius Satellite Radio host Michelangelo Signorile to this column, Jan. 17.
"I am optimistic because we have a chance to pull ourselves up and out of the morass George Bush has left us in on so many fronts. I am realistic about what Barack Obama faces as he assumes the presidency. We have a country in an economic shambles, a tattered international reputation, and a divisive political climate that will make it difficult for him to accomplish all that is expected of him from those who cast their votes for him—those who believe in hope, as well as those who marked their ballot for him out of sheer desperation to end the national nightmare. I hope Obama's been getting a good amount of shut-eye prior to inauguration, because there are likely a lot of sleepless nights ahead of him." — Popular lesbian blogger Pam Spaulding ( Pam's House Blend ) to this column, Jan. 17.
"Once upon a time the GOP was the party of fiscal prudence and containing communism and strong national defense. Now the GOP is the party of keeping my boyfriend's tongue out of my mouth. Hatin' on homos—it's all the GOP has anymore. It's a platform, I guess, but one wonders if freaking out about gay sex is a big enough issue to sustain a national political party." — Gay writer Dan Savage on his blog, Jan. 13.
—Assistance: Bill Kelley
