'I am writing to ask you to denounce the bigoted and misinformed statement of Sen. Rick Santorum in regard to homosexuals and to urge him to relinquish his leadership position in the Senate. As leader of this nation and all its people, you should take this opportunity to condemn gratuitous attacks on a large minority of Americans.' — U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., to President Bush.
'George W. Bush ran for President on the promise that he would be 'a uniter, not a divider.' Nothing could be further from the truth. The President's defense of Santorum's inflammatory words deeply offends millions of Americans; his praise [of Santorum] also raises grave concerns about this Administration's commitment to civil rights and civil liberties. Equating the private, consensual activities of adults to the molestation of minors is not a policy discussion. It is gay-bashing, and it is immoral.' — Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean.
'One of the most egregiously inaccurate arguments Sen. Rick Santorum made in his homophobic disquisition was that if the United States Supreme Court rules that it violates protected individual liberty when an armed policemen arrests two adults for consensual sex in their own bedroom, it must then logically require legal recognition of bigamy, polygamy, adultery, and in one of Sen. Santorum's later adumbrations, bestiality.' — U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.
'There is nothing conservative about allowing law enforcement officials to enter the home of any American and arrest them for simply being gay. I am deeply troubled that Sen. Santorum would divide America in a time of war. Mainstream America is embracing tolerance and inclusion. I am appalled that a member of the United States Senate leadership would advocate dividing Americans with ugly hate filled rhetoric.' — Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director Patrick Guerriero.
'Rick is a consistent voice for inclusion and compassion in the Republican Party and in the Senate and to suggest otherwise is just politics.' — Senate majority leader Dr. Bill Frist on Santorum.
'These are false and harmful comparisons. Sen. Santorum owes an apology to gay men and women who support, build and have loving families all across America.' — The gay-straight alliance of Republicans known as Republican Unity Coalition, which includes former President Gerald Ford and Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary, as members. But they did not call for his resignation as a Senate leader.
'The president believes that the senator is an inclusive man. The president has confidence in Sen. Santorum and thinks he's doing a good job as senator—including in his leadership post.' — Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer.
'No community in the world seems better at eroticizing anything and everything than the gay male community. But why eroticize HIV? Why make seroconversion sexy? Even if most of this is fantasy, to what extent does fantasy affect everyday life and our sex practices? Even if we think we know the difference and can keep fantasy separate from reality, can we really?' — From a workshop description for the upcoming national Gay Men's Health Summit, May 7-11 in Raleigh, N.C.
'Whether it is applying for a job, buying a house or a car, or applying for a loan, no one should face rejection and humiliation because of their gender identity or sexual orientation. It's no different than the way the law already applies to ethnicity or religious beliefs.' — New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signing a law April 9 banning discrimination against gays and transgender people. New Mexico is the 14th state to protect gays and the third state to protect transgender people.
'Details is a magazine for men—all men. I'm not going to get caught up in a whole butcher-than-thou stand-off with the cookie-cutter men's magazines. Those other books are squeamish about running stories with any gay content; Details isn't.' — Details magazine Editor-in-Chief Dan Peres to the New York Post, April 11.
'[Queer As Folk's Emmett is] an old-fashioned sissy, a style of being gay that was far more popular in the 1980s, when I came out, than it is in today's gym-bunny era of false gay masculinity.' — Gareth Kirkby, editor of the Vancouver, Canada, gay newspaper Xtra! West, writing in the April 3 issue.
'When they kissed, I got such a boner!' — Comedian Margaret Cho on the male-male-female sex scene in the Mexican film Y Tu Mamá También, to Girlfriends magazine, April issue.
'What it [the war] is going to mean for [America's] stability as a nation, for terrorism, for the economy—I can't imagine. I don't know if a country where the people are so ignorant of reality and of history, if you can call that a free world.' — Jane Fonda speaking at the Unique Lives and Experiences lecture series in Vancouver, Canada, April 8.
'They pay me to keep my clothes on.' — Sharon Gless, Debbie Novotny on Showtime's Queer As Folk, to Miami's The Weekly News, March 13.
'People said to me if I came out, I'd feel different. I remember thinking: 'Shut up! I don't need your rhetoric, Nazi bullshit! Shut the fuck up!'' — Rosie O'Donnell at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Media Awards April 7 in New York City.
