"President Obama has said he is opposed to discriminatory ballot measures. It's time for him to do something to stop them. The president can do something today to prevent future ballot measures designed to take away LGBT rights by asking the federal court to rule that Proposition 8 and similar measures violate the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. ... If politicians want our support, then they must speak out and act when the rights of any minority are threatened. Urge President Obama to have a brief filed in the federal Prop. 8 court challenge, arguing that no minority should ever have their rights taken away at the ballot box. www.eqca.org/enough.&; — Equality California Executive Director Geoff Kors, Nov. 6.
"DNC/HRC fusion robs the ( gay ) community of any actual representation of us, and should remind us that any civil rights movement that puts its trust in any political party loses both its integrity and its success. We have to do this ourselves, from the ground up, in our living rooms and churches, synagogues and mosques, workplaces and family get-togethers. We need to change the leadership of HRC ( Human Rights Campaign ) to end their role as the Democratic party's chief enablers of substantive inaction. And we need to remain focused not on the nastiness of our opponents, but on our own positive arguments for change. We must not take the Christianist bait. We're winning because we have the better argument. So keep making the argument, and stop looking to others to save us." — Gay writer Andrew Sullivan on his blog, Nov. 6.
"I admire his earrings and he admires my shoes." — California Assemblymember Connie Conway, R-Tulare, on openly gay fellow Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, to The Sacramento Bee, Nov. 9.
"People who say I hate gays and lesbians are, in a polite way, ignorant. I think they don't see that just because someone doesn't agree with redefining marriage that they hate you—I've never said that I hated gays. I have friends who are gay. I have hairdressers who are gay. I live in California—that's the most liberal state there is. I am not afraid of gays. It's just a personal opinion. They have an opinion; I have my own opinion. Why is my opinion not valid?" — Deposed beauty queen Carrie Prejean to Christianity Today, Nov. 10.
" ( Carrie ) Prejean is hardly the victim of a liberal, soulless, Christian-hating media. She's offered up more red meat than Vons." — San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Michael Stetz, Nov. 11. Vons is a grocery-store chain.
"I'm not going to give up on Obama in all respects. I can't imagine how it is to be a politician, I don't care how freshly you come to it. We don't know what his situation is. It's like people wanting everybody to come out. You can't expect it of every person because you don't know what they're going through. You don't know what their situation is, you don't know what their level of courage is in that department. You try to give people the benefit of the doubt, especially when they're coming from what appears to be a good place. I have every hope but change is really, really hard." — Lily Tomlin to Las Vegas' The Strip Podcast, Nov. 8.
"We ( Jane Wagner and I ) don't want to get married. ... It just doesn't appeal to us. I've had friends who've gotten married and who have had incredibly beautiful ceremonies and done really spiritual things that were totally inspiring and uplifting. ( But ) I see marriage as more of a religious endeavor or connection and it just doesn't appeal to me. If we had children, we'd want to be married so the children would have that identity. We've been together 38 years, I don't think there's any point in getting married except for the PR of it." — Lily Tomlin to Las Vegas' The Strip Podcast, Nov. 8.
—Assistance: Bill Kelley
