"If we're going to ( use 'LGBT' to ) list everyone who falls under the penumbra, then list everyone—break the Ts into multiple categories, add the queer and questioning youth and everyone else until the acronym is 50 letters long. Why stop at 4? ( Many people don't—the new thing is to call us LGBTQ. ) If we're all one community, then we don't need to keep adding letters to divide us. And for that matter, who decided that we'd go from GLBT to LGBT a few years ago? And why put L first?" — AMERICAblog's John Aravosis, June 1.
"They tell me they were going to put pressure on Congress ( to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act ) . All they put pressure on was the grass. Members of Congress didn't know it ( the National Equality March ) happened because they didn't call anybody. And I don't understand why they think that works. By the way, you know who understands that? The National Rifle Association. They don't have shoot-ins and rifle marches—they write and call. The NRA, person for person, they are extremely influential because they lobby that way." — Gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., to lgbtpov.com, April 12.
"I've had dozens and dozens of national and international media interviews since my election, and they fall into two categories: One category is, 'Wow, you're a lesbian mayor,' and the other category is, 'How did this happen in Houston or how did this happen in Texas?'" — Houston Mayor Annise Parker to the newspaper DC Agenda, April 19.
"GLAAD used to have chapters where their watchdog volunteers were prized. GLAAD would both give out awards—which meant something seriously significant then—and protest either through a demonstration ( 'Basic Instinct' ) or with ads in the entertainment trade publications. ( Nowadays, ) other than their awards show and an occasional 'call to action'—usually after bloggers have stirred something up—they hold GLAAD It's Friday fundraisers for what?" — Veteran Los Angeles lesbian journalist Karen Ocamb on her lgbtpov.com blog, June 6.
" ( T ) he state of the civil rights movement in the U.S. is frustrating because we have not been able to move the bar on some of these core issues. And they are core issues because it's very easy to be forced back in the closet when you work for an employer in a state ( where ) you know being out can get you legally fired. It's legal in my primary state of residence, Florida. You can't sue an employer if they came in and said: 'Oh, I know you're a gay activist. You're fired.'" — Stuart Milk, Harvey Milk's nephew, to San Diego's Gay & Lesbian Times, May 20.
"In the U.S., it's very frustrating, in a way, that what Harvey ( Milk ) fought hardest about in San Francisco more than three decades ago was protection in employment and housing, and we still don't have that in more than half the country. We do not have it federally, and we are still debating in Congress whether we should have employment nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people." — Stuart Milk, Harvey Milk's nephew, to San Diego's Gay & Lesbian Times, May 20.
"In 2004 the social question that animated the campaign was gay marriage. Before the election season had unfolded, I had talked to George about not making gay marriage a significant issue. We have, I reminded him, a number of close friends who are gay or whose children are gay. But at that moment I could never have imagined what path this issue would take and where it would lead." — Laura Bush in her newest book, "Spoken From the Heart."
—Assistance: Bill Kelley
