'Oh, you're one of the sodomites! You should only get AIDS and die, you pig! How's that? Why don't you see if you can sue me, you
pig? You got nothing better than to put me down, you piece of garbage? You got nothing to do today? Go eat a sausage and choke
on it. Get trichinosis. OK, do I have another nice caller here who's busy because he didn't have a nice night in the bathhouse who's
angry at me today? Huh? Get me another one. Put another sodomite on! No more calls? I don't care. Let's go to the next scene. I don't
care about these bums, they mean nothing to me. They're all sausages.' — Former MSNBC talk-show host Michael Savage to a gay
man who phoned the Savage Nation TV program July 5. MSNBC canceled the four-month-old show two days later, due at least in
part to this outburst.
'Justices liberate gays from Texas Taliban' — Headline on a Washington Post Writers Group opinion column in the Allentown,
Penn., daily newspaper The Morning Call, June 30.
'Antonin Scalia is Archie Bunker in a high-backed chair.' — Columnist Maureen Dowd on the U.S. Supreme Court justice who
wrote the minority opinion trashing the decision to legalize gay sex, in The New York Times, June 29.
'We got a couple of breaks in the last few weeks, with Canada legalizing gay marriage and now the Supreme Court
[decriminalizing gay sex]. It looks like Sandra Day O'Connor watching Will & Grace really paid off.' — San Francisco Supervisor Tom
Ammiano to the Associated Press, June 29.
'Bowers was not correct when it was decided, and it is not correct today. It ought not to remain binding precedent. Bowers v.
Hardwick should be and now is overruled.' — The U.S. Supreme Court overturning its own 1986 anti-gay decision and thereby
legalizing gay sex nationwide, June 26. Activists called it the most-important U.S. gay-rights ruling ever.
'The most significant ruling ever for lesbian and gay Americans' civil rights ... This ruling starts an entirely new chapter in our fight
for equality for lesbians and gay men.' — Lambda Legal, on the June 26 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing gay sex nationwide.
'We never chose to be public figures or to take on this fight. But we also never thought we could be arrested this way. We're glad
not only that this ruling lets us get on with our lives but that it opens the door for gay people all across the country to be truly equal.
We're grateful to everyone who has respected our privacy over the last few years, even if the state of Texas did not respect it that night
in 1998.' — John Geddes Lawrence, 59, who was arrested with Tyron Garner, 35, on Sept. 17, 1998, in Garner's bedroom for
violating Texas' law against 'deviate sexual intercourse.' The men's case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court which used it to
overturn the U.S.' 13 remaining state laws banning gay sex, July 26.
'Sean Hayes and I have argued about [his Will & Grace character] Jack. I say he's a stereotype; Sean says he's just unique and a
little peculiar. At least Jack generally does have the last laugh and isn't laughed at. If he were the only gay character on TV it would
be a concern.' — Scott Seomin, entertainment media director at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, to the Denver Post,
June 23.
'For years, Canada has been the place to go for dodging the draft, buying cheap prescription drugs and now for same-sex
marriages. Americans up there just to go fishing probably arouse suspicion.' — Column Mark Russell, Tribune Media Services, June
23.
'We'll never forget this day, not in a million years. We just want to say thank you, Canada. Good karma comes from treating
people equally.' — Brent Scheuerman-Stallone of Kansas City, Mo., to Canada's National Post while riding in Toronto's gay-pride
parade June 29 after marrying his partner of 12 years, Steve Scheuerman-Stallone. Ontario's highest court legalized same-sex
marriage June 10. The federal government accepted the ruling and is in the process of legalizing same-sex marriage in all other
provinces and territories.
'What I do support is a notion that marriage is between a man and a woman.' — U.S. President George W. Bush during a July 2
press conference.
'Gaydar[.com] just dehumanizes people. It is like ordering a pizza and deciding what topping you want. I'm am not being
puritanical about it because, my god, I've been around myself. But is that all there is to life, just constantly chasing sex? I think a lot of
people on the scene do get bored of that.' — Matthew Todd, assistant editor of the British gay lifestyle glossy Attitude, to London's
The Pink Paper, June 20. Todd has written a play, Blowing Whistles, which The Pink Paper said 'mocks Pride and Gaydar.'
'They come because they're gay and I'm gay and it's not like they really get the humor that I'm doing or get that that's not what I'm
really all about. They come expecting to see some kind of thing, or they want to scream out. And as much as they're coming from a
good place because I did something that helped them ... it is disruptive sometimes.' — Ellen DeGeneres complaining about the
audiences at her stand-up performances, to the Associated Press, June 25.
'There is nothing worse than when an actor plays a gay character on television and then in every piece of press there is
something about how not gay they are. ... It's unbearable to me. [It's] really insulting, so I just always try to keep it [statements about
my heterosexuality] at a minimum.' — Willie Garson who plays Carrie's queeny friend Sanford Blatch on Sex and the City, to San
Diego's Gay & Lesbian Times, June 26.
'Some people say to me, 'Are you worried people will just have sex with you because you're on television?' And I have to say, no!
I don't. I don't care why they're down there. You know, shallow or found, it's all sex. But you find gay men don't throw themselves at
your feet. Because you're on the TV they'll want to talk to you, they'll want to kind of become your friend, but they won't waste their sex
on you. They're not that stupid, sadly.' — Wildly popular British talk-show host Graham Norton to Boston's Bay Windows, June 12.
'Joyce and I have both been surprised by how changed we feel. After exchanging vows, we spent the weekend in Toronto, giving
us a chance to test drive being newlyweds in a wonderfully accepting city. We stopped calling each other 'partner' and began using
'spouse.' When shopkeepers, cab drivers, hotel clerks and waiters asked why we were visiting Canada, we explained we had come
to marry—and everyone cheered.' — Syndicated columnist Deb Price, whose work appears in several U.S. daily newspapers, in her
July 7 column. Marriage was opened to same-sex couples in Ontario province by a June 10 court ruling that took effect instantly. An
identical ruling took effect in British Columbia July 8. There are no residency requirements. Foreign couples can buy a license and
marry the same day. The federal government has accepted the provincial rulings — which declared the opposite-sex definition of
marriage unconstitutional — and same-sex marriage will be available nationwide soon.
