'Top military analysts ... evaluated the impact of coalition fighting in Iraq among military forces with conflicting policies on gay troops. In interviews conducted by the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military (CSSMM), a think tank at the University of California, Santa Barbara, combat experts described the nature of joint operations by coalition forces. Their comments suggested that when U.S. units-which ban openly gay soldiers for fear of undermining unit cohesion-fight with British units which allow gay soldiers, there is no adverse impact on military effectiveness. Lt. Gen. Gregory S. Newbold, a vice president at the Potomac Institute, said there were instances in the war in Iraq when U.S. and British forces exchanged personnel. In coalition fighting, he explained, the two different armies might provide fire support, air defense, tanks or logistics for one other, as well as translator capabilities and other non-combatant support.' — From a CSSMM press release.
'The homosexual men I knew in the military were much more professional about their sexuality than the heterosexuals, if only because they had to be [to gain full acceptance].' — Glenn Truitt, a former submarine officer
'Most of the issues about women and gays take place when the bullets aren't flying. When you're fighting, you've got other things on your mind.' — Maj. Gen. Bill Nash (Ret.), a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
'The Iraq war demonstrates that the morale and cohesion of our forces is simply not affected by the presence of openly gay soldiers.' — U.S. Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., on coalition forces working together with openly gay Brit soldiers. Twenty-three other nations besides Britain allow gays to serve openly. See www.gaymilitary.ucsb.edu .
'We are still at a point in time in our history that it is very, very important for gay and lesbian candidates to identify themselves, because we transform hearts and minds one person at a time.' — Providence, R.I., Mayor David Cicilline to the Michigan gay newspaper Between The Lines, April 10.
'The real danger of gay marriage is that it will undermine the taboo on adultery, thereby destroying the final bastion protecting marriage: the ethos of monogamy. ... Gay marriage threatens monogamy because homosexual couples—particularly male homosexual couples—tend to see monogamy as nonessential, even to the most loyal and committed relationships. Of course, advocates argue that legal gay marriage will change all that—that marriage will make gays more monogamous. But it is just as likely (indeed, far more likely) that the effect will go in the other direction—openly non-monogamous married gay couples will break the connection between marriage and monogamy [for straight people]. Even more powerfully, gay marriage threatens monogamy through its tendency to lead, on a slippery slope, to the legalization of polygamy and polyamory. ... As a new generation grows up exposed to gay couples who openly define their marriages in non-monogamous terms, the concept of marriage itself will gradually change.' — Stanley Kurtz writing in The National Review, April 30.
'The politicized left is adrift and stalled on the biggies (gay and lesbian marriage, adoption, military, Boy Scouts, etc.), while gay neocons keep insisting the civil rights movement is cooked and ready to serve. Every few months there's another academic conference on subjects like 'gay shame' and 'gay identity.' Social linguists right now are obsessed with the genetic and/or cultural origins of 'gay accent' (or 'GA'), the noticeable lilt in many gay men's voices that can be detected across languages, ethnicities and continents. Reality television and news programs have been a boon to GA research, because television's nonfictional gay men are detectably gay, whether the man is out or not.' — Washington Post writer Hank Stuever, April 19.
'I think to walk around and talk about gay-gay-gay would just ... trivialize what I am. Better to just be it and not talk about it.' — Today show correspondent Steven Cojocaru to the Washington Post, April 19. Cojocaru appears every Thursday to discuss style, movie stars, models, handbags, shoes, scents, necklaces and such.
'Outside of Judy Garland, I never heard anyone sing as well as you.' — Tony Bennett to k.d. lang during a National Public Radio interview April 15. They have a new album out together called A Wonderful World.
'Recording with Tony [Bennett] has completely changed—my approach to recording forever will be different. I can't do this thing where you do the beds first and then you're stuck in a room by yourself and everyone's staring at you and you have to do your vocals. It's just so not my style. I have to sing with the musicians while it's going down. And I don't think I'll ever return to that sterile way of recording.' — k.d. lang to National Public Radio, April 15.
'We lost our country to somebody who claimed he was a compassionate conservative but once he was elected the compassion was gone. We want our country back and we're going to take it back.' — Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, the governor who signed Vermont's civil-unions law, speaking at New York City's gay center, April 4.
'Six [Democratic presidential] candidates—Representatives Richard Gephardt and Dennis Kucinich, the Rev. Al Sharpton, former Vermont governor Howard Dean, Senator John Kerry, and former senator Carol Moseley Braun—have given their blessings to civil unions affording gays and lesbians legal recognition of their partnerships. ... Sharpton and Kucinich have gone a step further than those six candidates, indicating they support legal recognition of gay marriages. Three contenders—Senators John Edwards of North Carolina, Bob Graham of Florida, and Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut—stopped short of endorsing civil unions, but did not oppose them. Edwards and Lieberman said the issue should be left to individual states, while Graham said it deserves further study.' — The Boston Globe, April 26.
'Russia is desperate to win the Eurovision Song Contest this year. But you'd never know it, the way t.a.T.u. have been acting up in Latvia this week. The pseudo-lesbian prima donnas from Moscow, Lena Katina, 17, and Julia Volkova, 18, who are representing Russia at this year's event, have had Riga in uproar. After refusing to sing in rehearsals, Russia's biggest pop act have sulked their way through press conferences, playing with each other's hair and refusing to answer questions. When they arrived, they declared that they hated everything. The press has been following their every move since. .. After the pair announced that they planned to spend their spare time having 'sex in a very small bed,' Riga's rumour mills went into overdrive.' — The Independent (UK) May 24.
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