"In a majority of school shootings in 1997 and 1998, anti-gay harassment was a factor, even when the target of ridicule was heterosexual, several news reports showed. Michael Carneal, 14, went on his school shooting spree in December 1997 in West Paducah, Ky., a few weeks after a student newspaper article labeled him gay. Though clearly upset, the boy—who was straight—told his mother he didn't want to make a fuss. The next week, three girls, including the girl who wrote the article, were dead." — Education Week, April 19 issue.
"Of all the non-issues on Earth, this is the greatest. ... You'll always find some mad fool who wants to lead everybody into a state where all fags are paired off and married. ... [ A ] nybody who wants to enter that legal morass known as marriage ... it's on their heads." — Gay writer Gore Vidal in the April Genre magazine, discussing the debate over gay marriage.
"... [ Gay marriage is ] a non-issue because people would be better off protesting laws against homosexuality as filtered through insurance company policies and discrimination in housing and military. That's useful work. That's work that can be done—that should be done." — Vidal, a biographer, critic, and political observer for more than 50 years.
"You judge the law on which the crime was based: Was it constitutional? That's all you have to do, not sit around and say, 'Oh, he did that because he hated Chinese lesbians and was just waiting for the chance to drown them in a cauldron of wonton soup.' It is rather tortured to try and bring this sort of thing in as evidence. Stick to the facts." — Vidal on hate-crimes laws.
"Number One on my list has always been Matthew Modine, even though he's probably in his 40s by now. He has this great, boyish look that I love. The next favorite is Adrien Brody. He's the best. In Summer of Sam he just steals the movie in his underwear. Oh, I would just kiss Adrien Brody's big fat lips." — RuPaul discussing who he'd be interested in "taking out behind the woodshed," Genre, April issue.
"Admitting that he's not really from Atlanta, RuPaul tells the truth about his background. The San Diego native hoped to permanently avoid relocating to Southern California, but his latest career plans necessitated the move to Los Angeles. He cites 'bad memories' noting the understatement of that term, as the reason for his bias, but when asked if he in his Superdiva persona, has ever been invited to entertain military troops, RuPaul quips, 'I have never been asked by the USO, but then I am from San Diego so I have, so to speak, entertained the troops before.'" — Genre.
"All of my life I've spent a lot of time with gay men—Montgomery Clift, Jimmy Dean, Rock Hudson—who are my colleagues, coworkers, confidantes, my closest friends, but I never thought of who they slept with! They were just the people I loved. I could never understand why they couldn't be afforded the same rights and protections as all of the rest of us. There is no gay agenda, it's a human agenda." — Elizabeth Taylor accepting GLAAD's Vanguard Award for promoting gay equality April 15 in L.A.
"Any home where there is love constitutes a family and all families should have the same legal rights, including the right to marry and have or adopt children! Why shouldn't gay people be able to live as open and freely as everybody else? What it comes down to, ultimately, is love. How can anything bad come out of love? ... That's why I'm here tonight—to celebrate you and your families. And to tell you to hang in there and to say, once and for all of us, long live love." — Taylor.
"When Manny was 14, he announced to his parents that he was gay. They promptly restricted his phone calls and locked him in his room, but when those actions didn't 'change' him, they threw him out of the house. For months afterward, the teenager would stand on the roof of his aunt's five-story apartment building, curling his toes over the concrete lip and fantasizing about diving over the ledge. Julie was 15 when she barricaded herself in her bedroom and sliced open her forearms with a knife, knowing that her family would disown her if she told them she liked girls. Mark, a shy 18-year-old, downed a near-fatal dose of penicillin and painkillers two years ago. He could no longer endure the daily routine of being harassed at school—only to go home, where his brother beat him until he bled because he was gay." — The start of an April 19 article on gay teen suicide in Education Week. The youth all attend a New York alternative school.
"Homosexual youths are more than five times as likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers. The taunts of 'faggot' and 'queer' that reverberate in school hallways, on street corners, playgrounds, and sometimes at the dinner table all combine to drive gay adolescents to the edge, said Rea Carey, the executive director of the National Youth Advocacy Coalition, based in Washington." — Education Week.
"The way we pick and choose what queer voices to listen to is a very interesting and disturbing phenomenon. Monday, hundreds of people packed Kresge Auditorium to hear Greg Louganis, an openly gay Olympic athlete, speak about his life: coming out, living with HIV, abusive relationships, and ultimately, perseverance. While it is great that so many folks showed up to hear Louganis talk, it was a bittersweet event for me. Perhaps you've seen the flyers on campus that read, 'Steen Fenrich is dead.' During spring break, a plastic tub was found in a pond in Queens, N.Y. Inside the tub lay the skull and crushed bones of 19-year old Fenrich. Upon the acid-burned skull were etched 'nigger' and 'faggot.' Fenrich's stepfather is the alleged murderer. Did anyone hear Fenrich's cries while he was being killed? The answer is no. Hardly anyone knows about Fenrich. He was a poor person of color in New York, not a celebrated Olympic athlete. Students are not mobilizing around Fenrich's murder. The University does not recognize Steen Fenrich Awareness Week, and nobody is passing out ribbons to commemorate Fenrich's life." — Writer Paula Kirlin in The DePauw, DePauw University's paper, April 14. Kirlin is a senior from Indianapolis, Ind.
"As I write this on 'Good' Friday, more than 150 protesters arrested at the IMF/World Bank demonstrations in Washington, D.C.are still in jail, ... . First, I felt awe for the strategic boldness and wisdom of the D.C. cops and their federal henchmen. ... They moved pre-emptively to shut down our headquarters and move hundreds of us off the streets before our scheduled actions even began. Then, at what should have been the time of greatest confrontation, they pulled back, earning major public credit for self-control and moderation. ... Yes, they're smart, but how dare they! They have exercised all this might, at the cost of millions of dollars, to prevent us from staging peaceful protests outside a meeting. They have absolutely no right in the world to do any of this. ... They told everyone where to go and what to do. They arrested people walking down the sidewalk. They attacked peaceful citizens with tear gas and pepper spray. And after peacefully arresting another 600 on Monday under a negotiated agreement, they threw those 600 in jail, wouldn't give them food or water or let them use a toilet for 24 hours, took 30 guys to a basement cell and yelled at them that they would die if they didn't reveal their names, kicked them in the face, slammed their heads against walls, sent undercover cops to interview them pretending to be lawyers—you get the picture. And why is all this happening? Perhaps you'll understand if I tell you that at the same time, there was a meeting of a group representing 133 of the world's poorer countries and that meeting put out a statement supporting the protests. You read recently that, in this city and in the United States, more and more people are falling below the poverty line, even though they are intact families with jobs, while the few rich get richer and richer. The poor countries' statement said that the global policies of the World Bank and the IMF have 'stabilized poverty' around the world ( meaning they've institutionalized it ) and that these policies and practices are 'cruel, unjust, inhuman and racist.'" — Syndicated columnist and activist Ann Northrop .
