"I just loathe homophobia. It's just disgusting and animal and stupid and it's just thick people who can't get their head around it and are just scared. ... I grew up around gay people entirely. I was the only child in my class who had any experience of homosexuality or anything like that." Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe ( pictured ) to Britain's Attitude magazine, July 23.
"It is difficult to the point of impossibility to envision two love-struck heterosexuals contemplating marriage to decide against it because gays and lesbians also have the right to marry; it is equally hard to envision a couple whose marriage is troubled basing the decision of whether to divorce on whether their gay neighbors are married or living in a domestic partnership." Lawyer David Boies writing about his and Ted Olson's bold lawsuit seeking to have Prop 8 struck down as a violation of the U.S. Constitution, in The Wall Street Journal, July 20.
"Countries as Catholic as Spain, as different as Sweden and South Africa, and as near as Canada have embraced gay and lesbian marriage without any noticeable effectexcept the increase in human happiness and social stability that comes from permitting people to marry for love. Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont ... have individually repealed their bans on same-sex marriage as inconsistent with a decent respect for human rights and a rational view of the communal value of marriage for all individuals." Lawyer David Boies writing about his and Ted Olson's bold lawsuit seeking to have Prop 8 struck down as a violation of the U.S. Constitution, in The Wall Street Journal, July 20.
"Discouraged by stubborn poll numbers and pessimistic political consultants, major financial backers of same-sex marriage are cautioning gay rights groups to delay a campaign to overturn California's ban on such unions until at least 2012." So says The New York Times, July 26.
" ( I ) t's nice to be able to type the word 'fucking' and just hit publish. I need the sort of valve so many others have discovered on the great grassy bloglands of the new frontiera quasi-space of my own to write whatever else I'm not being paid to write. We'll see how it goes. I have no idea if my employer even allows me to blog. I think I'm just supposed to take it easy on tales of internecine warfare in the Post newsroom and that I should not, like, endorse candidates for public office and that sort of thing. I can only hope this blog brings trouble, because trouble means it's being read." Openly gay Washington Post reporter Hank Stuever in his first blog post, July 14. hankstuever.com/blog
"At some point ( during gay pride week ) , a group of gay men in their forties or fifties will find themselves occupying the same bar or park or restaurant or subway car or patch of pavement as a group of gay men in their twenties. We will look at them. They will look at us. We will realize that we have absolutely nothing to say to one another. And the gay generation gap will widen. You hear the tone of brusque dismissiveness in private conversations, often fueled by a couple of drinks, and you see the irritation become combustible when it's protected by Internet anonymity." Mark Harris writing in New York magazine, June 21.
"Proposition 8 here deals with people's freedom and you can't say everyone is basically free and has the right to do what they want to do when you suddenly put up a bar and say, 'I'm sorry, gay people cannot get married if they want to.' It's not about gay peopleit could be about anybody. Who's next? What's next?" Former gossip queen Rona Barrett to Windy City Times, June 24.
Assistance: Bill Kelley