"We are ... unnerved by the appointment of Elizabeth Toledo to run the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. ... This is the sixth consecutive lesbian feminist executive director at the Task Force. And it's been a while, we might add, since a man has run our other major national group, HRC. ... The LGBT movement could stand some testosterone at the top. Maybe someone in their late 20s. Maybe someone in their 60s or 70s. Maybe someone African American. Someone from Kansas. Someone bisexual or transgendered or fat. Just someone other than a classically attractive, 40-something lesbian." — San Francisco Bay Times newswriter Ann Rostow, May 25.
"Over at the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, where we've been berating the board for lack of management diversity, the Policy Institute has named Ingrid Rivera-Dessuit to the post of Racial and Economic Justice Policy Analyst. 'As a mother who is a lesbian of color, who was once homeless and lived on welfare,' said Rivera-Dessuit, 'I know firsthand how issues of race, poverty and sexual orientation come together. And I understand how crucial it is that we, as a community, take on the task of changing public policy and attitudes in these areas.' This is a good start, but let's not forget to hire some men one of these days." — Ann Rostow, June 8.
"We were at [ songwriter ] Paul Jabara's home in LA, and he was playing some different songs for us. And when he put on 'It's Raining Men' we just laughed. He begged us to record the song for him—the music was there, the background was there, all we had to do was walk in and do the lead vocals. But we said 'No.' He begged, and he pleaded, and finally we wound up doing it in a studio in about two-and-a-half hours." — Weather Girl Martha Wash to Genre magazine, July issue.
"fab! gets 10 letters an issue regarding Paulo Murillo's WeHo lifestyle column—but NOT A WORD on Gov. Gray Davis' veto of a pro-gay bill. Is this a yuppie millennium thing? Are we baby boomer journalists, who grew up in the shadow of Vietnam, Kent State, Woodstock, etc., not really 'getting' to our younger readers —because 1 ) they don't know what we're talking about or 2 ) they don't really give a fuck, when's the next party?" — Mark Ariel, editor of the L.A. gay newspaper fab! in a June 3 e-mail to this column.
"They never asked me until Serial Mom and then every reviewer asked me if I was gay. I think it became a political question with AIDS. I always said yes. They never used to ask, and I assumed they knew. They saw the movies. What are they—blind? Do they think a straight man could have made those movies? I don't think so!" — John Waters to Palm Springs' Gay & Lesbian Times, May 25.
"It's never been an issue at all [ being gay ] . I'm not saying for others that it isn't, but I've never been held back in show business because of my sexuality." — Waters.
"I went through a very tough period after the show got cancelled. And, you know, basically when you're fired from any job, it's hard, but when you're publicly fired and humiliated it's really hard. So I went through a pretty deep depression for a while, and didn't know if I was going to be able to make it back out." — Ellen DeGeneres on the Web at SamDonaldson@ABCNEWS.com, June 5.
"Right after she [ Anne Heche ] did Psycho, which I was very upset by, I just hated seeing that, our dog got sprayed by a skunk in the country. And you're supposed to wash him with tomato sauce to get the—but we didn't have tomato sauce, we just had whole pomade tomatoes in the boxes. So I kept running back to get more tomatoes. And I come back and she's in the shower and there's just red tomato stuff all over the shower and she's naked in there just covered with the red tomatoes and ... it was a pretty frightening experience." — DeGeneres.
"Those two [ Boy George and George Michael ] have always been at each other's throats with this love/hate relationship they have that is really quite funny. In the end, they are just a few bitter, old queens. If they weren't pop stars, they'd be bantering at the local bar—George O'Dowd would be the one with the bigger mouth and be the biggest bitch of the two. Really, it's so dull." — Singer Jimmy Somerville to Vancouver's Xtra West, June 1.
"Wearing girl's clothing and playing with dolls will not make the boy gay. We now know that homosexuality is a matter of genetics. In other words, they are born that way. Most experts believe that children should have a say in what they wear. When the boy is older, he may be uncomfortable wearing 'frilly' clothing and rebel. Meanwhile, MYOB." — Syndicated advice columnist Ann Landers in response to a reader who was upset that one of the boys in her daughter's preschool "has beautiful curly hair and wears it long. He also wears ruffled and frilly dresses and stockings with designs on them. He plays with dolls and other 'girl' toys."
"Have you been searching for a place that will accept you as Christian and Leather, or S/M, or Kinky? The Leather Ministry is a group where the whole person can feel nurtured. We do not have to separate those two parts of our lives any longer. The Leather Ministry is for those people seeking to blend their Spirituality and their Sexuality." — From the San Diego leather e-mail list PT-List, June 8.
"I can't think of another time that we've seen a gay rights group exert this kind of pressure so effectively [ as they have against Dr. Laura's planned TV show ] . I mean, to get Procter & Gamble, United Airlines—these are big American corporations. They must see gay consumers as being pretty important, and they must see some kind of penalty for them if they went ahead with this [ advertising ] ." — National Public Radio's Mara Liasson on FOX News, May 31.
"Other advertisers should pay attention to P&G's [ Procter & Gamble's ] words: there are indeed 'better' program options." — Advertising Age on P&G's decision not to advertise on Dr. Laura Schlessinger's planned TV show because she is anti-gay, May 29.
"I think it's indicative of the improvement of the atmosphere that Bill Clinton has ushered in. People increasingly understand that the prejudice against gay people is just silly." — Gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., in reference to a speech he gave June 6 at the Central Intelligence Agency's gay-pride celebration, to The New York Times, June 9.
