"Straight people, they're not so interested in us.They really aren't. And part of it is that to them gay equals a sexual act. The other part of the problem is gay equals not them, therefore not interested. I find this with my extremely enlightened straight friends, they still don't quite have a handle on the best reason for legalizing gay marriage, which is those thousand civil rights that just automatically transfer with a heterosexual marriage license from state to state. It takes some explaining to them to show how ludicrous it is to set up a crazy quilt America where some states have gay marriage and some states don't, because if I get married and then by some misfortune move back home to Oklahoma, my rights don't come with me." Openly gay Washington Post TV critic Hank Stuever to the D.C. gay magazine Metro Weekly, Nov. 5.
"I am a fantastically good partner in all things sexual. I am tireless and enthusiastic and very flexible both physically and emotionally. I am a good time." Honorary-homosexual comedian Margaret Cho to the Palm Springs gay magazine The BottomLine, Oct. 23.
"We are fools to have spent all this money and time ( on same-sex marriage in California and Maine ) and not have defined the opponents. It's not enough to answer their charges. We need to hit them back and not let up on it until voters don't buy their lies anymore. Malpractice in my opinion." Steve Hildebrand, who was Barack Obama's deputy national campaign director and still advises Obama on gay stuff, to this column, Nov. 6.
" ( I knew Ellen was the one ) when I first laid eyes on her. But it took me three years to actually tell her how I felt about her because I was on Ally McBeal at the time and wasn't living as an openly gay person. I was closeted and very, very afraid that if I talked about being gay it would be the end of my career. So I wasn't about to date the most famous lesbian in the world." Portia de Rossi in a Nov. 9 appearance with wife Ellen DeGeneres on Oprah.
"It's never crossed my mind that it'd ever be possible for me ( to get married ) . That's the scar that I and so many others bearwe believed ourselves to be second-rate citizens for so long, the idea of being able to say 'This is my husband, these are my children' was not an option. I remember Tom Stoppard saying to me when I came out, 'I feel so sorry for you, because you'll never have children.' These days I would say, 'Well, why not, Tom?' But 20 years ago I accepted his judgment." Openly gay actor Sir Ian McKellen to Details magazine, Oct. 29.
"I felt like it ( being gay ) was this huge secret that I carried around with me. And I think professionally now I don't have any secrets and that's really incredibly freeing. I don't think privately I've had any secrets for a long, long time, but that line between public and private life was getting really hard to maintain. Especially now, I don't know what it isit's kind of freakishbut people demand so much, to know so much about people who act. And that was just getting kind of exhausting for me." Top Gun actress Kelly McGillis to the Palm Springs gay magazine The BottomLine, Oct. 23.
Assistance: Bill Kelley