'From men's obsession with swollen breasts to our constant search for a pseudo-parental God, everything about the human species is infantile. Like baby chimps we have soft downy bodies, flat faces and large rounded heads. Like them, we too want to be kissed, cuddled and stroked, and we remain playful, compliant and comparatively mild-mannered for the whole of our lives. So baby-like are we in adulthood that we even require sexual partners to double as both parent-substitute and sex object. Humans break all the moulds of normal primate behaviour. I think for a large proportion of human evolution, females have been targeting males who retain an infantile dependence on the mother figure. Love is all about transforming our promiscuous ancestors into devoted husbands. This explains why women develop breasts as soon as they become sexually active—it is a clear maternal signal. This theory also helps us understand homosexuality. For long periods in childhood we reject close relationships with members of the opposite sex in favour of close friendships with the same sex. If we retain youthful characteristics in adulthood, surely it's the case that homosexuals remain in this same-sex friendship stage? We've known for years that homosexuality is linked to a playful, creative character. Homosexuals excel as artists, thespians and other playful, mimetic professions. Being playful is at the heart of being human. It's something that should be celebrated. You could say that homosexuals are at the pinnacle of human evolution.' — Clive Bromhall, in 'Homosexuals are a pinnacle of evolution,' from a talk by the zoologist and author of The Eternal Child, at the Edinburgh Book Festival Aug. 14, 2003, in The Independent.
'I don't want to get into that.' — California gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger when asked about gay marriage by CBS News, Aug. 8.
'We have [in Provincetown] what the locals call 'Circuit Week' over July 4 when all the party-boys and drug-addicts show up to take drugs, dance and drink bottled water for days on end. I have no problem with that. But the perfect torsos, testosteroned rivalry, crystal-nerves and endless egg-whites all make for a somewhat overwrought time. When the bears arrive [for Bear Week], all that unease evaporates. They're cheerful; they don't give a shit what others think of them; they're more overtly social than sexual; they drink rather than do drugs; they seem, on the whole, older and far more grown-up than their party-boy cousins. They eat and drink and joke and cuddle and stroke and generally have a great time. And their mellowness is wonderfully infectious.' — Andrew Sullivan writing at Salon.com, Aug. 1.
'[For bears,] there is no contradiction between being a gay man and being a man as traditionally understood. And if that includes cracking open a six-pack and watching the game; or developing a beer-and-nachos belly; or working in a blue-collar job; or having the clothes sense of the average check-out guy; or preferring the company of men to women; then so be it.' — Sullivan.
'Bears ... take [the] frumpy, ordinary image of undemonstrative masculinity and eroticize it. Instead of sexualizing the perfect abs or the biggest bicep, bears look at a mature man's belly and see in it the essence of maleness and the motherlode of their sexual attraction. What women (and, now, the gay men on 'Queer Eye') often do to their men —clean them up, domesticate them, clothe them properly, groom them, tame them—is exactly what bears resist.' — Sullivan.
'He's putting at risk his eternal salvation. He's making a morally grave error and he's not being accountable to God.' — Calgary, Canada, Catholic Bishop Fred Henry on Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's support for same-sex marriage, July 31.
'Say what you want about the tawdry nature of reality programming in general, Boy Meets Boy—which the producers gallingly call a social experiment—goes the extra step of trampling on a person's emotional vulnerability, just so people at home can get a laugh. This isn't about losing money or blindly choosing someone who's, God forbid, ugly. It's about being duped on national television and having your innermost feelings ridiculed.' — San Francisco Chronicle columnist Tim Goodman, Aug. 1. In Bravo's Boy Meets Boy, lead player James is in the process of selecting a man to date from a group of 15 contestants, some of whom are secretly straight but pretending to be gay in hopes of winning $25,000 if they manage to dupe James and be chosen.
'A fall series on ABC called It's All Relative is ... getting noticed because it portrays two gay fathers. Before anyone thinks this is a milestone of some sort, consider that the pilot is dreadfully unfunny and laughlessly clichéd, elevating the two gay fathers to new heights of stereotypical behavior (fearful of stronger straight men, impeccable dressers, their house spotlessly clean with an interior decorator's appeal, etc.).' — San Francisco Chronicle columnist Tim Goodman, Aug. 1.
'[On] Boy Meets Boy ... a handsome gay man—his name is James—has his hands full with 15 other handsomes, all scheming for his heart. Some of the sharks in this pool are straight—but for $25,000 they can pretend to like boys. James doesn't know about the twist, but should he shoot straight, he gets no man and no moolah, only a great big sack of demoralization. Meanwhile, the gay-for-pay gets the dough, along with the satisfaction of knowing he tricked a practicing homosexual. Despite the ironic gay-friendly sheen, it's TV's cruelest show.' — Columnist Wesley Morris, Boston Globe, Aug. 3.
'I can't help thinking that if the Pope got as steamed about his employees hitting on little boys while the bosses protected felons as he does about a couple lesbians or homosexuals setting up light housekeeping, maybe Catholic pastors in America wouldn't be staring at so many half-filled churches on Sunday mornings.' — Columnist Mike Barnicle, New York Daily News, Aug. 3.
'By claiming that 'we're all sinners' in response to a question about homosexuality, Bush is really telegraphing to his religious-right base: 'Homosexuality is a grave sin, but we all commit some sort of sin, even if it's not as bad as that of homosexuals. Let's let them live, even though we shouldn't treat them equally.' The proof of that lies in his contention that those who engage in the sin of homosexuality are to be banned from marriage, while the rest of the sinners are free to marry to their hearts' content.' — Michelangelo Signorile, New York Press, Aug. 4.
'Bush is not our spiritual leader but the president of the United States. ... Why is he pontificating about sin in the White House Rose Garden, in the context of having his lawyers look into possible legislation [against-gay marriage]?' — Michelangelo Signorile, New York Press, Aug. 4.
'Truly, what gay men have is both worlds, the women's sensitivity and the man's smarts. My life would be boring and not as beautiful without them.' — Comedian Joan Rivers to USA Today, Aug. 5.
'The sharp heel of cross-dressers is trampling the rights of Californians.' — Randy Thomasson, executive director of Campaign for California Families, after Gov. Gray Davis signed a bill banning discrimination against transgendered people, as reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune, Aug. 6.
'I can tell he hears me and he gets it. It is just a matter of time before he supports gay marriage.' — Open lesbian Chrissy Gephardt on her dad, Democratic presidential candidate Richard Gephardt, to the Seattle Gay News, July 25.
'The show insists on reinforcing the stereotype that gay guys are groomed and charming and slender and witty, and no more than 35 years old. Yet here I sit in my Megadeth T-shirt, dirt broke, middle-aged, downing a carton of vanilla ice cream and spilling it on my computer keyboard.' — Gay columnist John Weir writing about Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, The New York Times, Aug. 10.
