'Well, you got a pretty face. You got a pretty face. You're a good-looking guy. Better looking than my Scott anyway.' — George W. Bush to Scott Reid, senior strategist to Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, at the Summit of the Americas in Monterrey, Mexico, in mid-January, according to Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper. Bush's press secretary is the balding, chubby Scott McClellan.
'I love the thought of someone in Nebraska or wherever watching and realizing that they're not that different from anyone else. I wanted the weight on my shoulders to represent the gay community. I'd be kicking myself right now if I wasn't a part of this.' — The L Word actress Leisha Hailey to The Advocate, Feb. 17.
'We didn't want it to be the gay show, and it's not.' — Openly gay actor Christopher Sieber who plays Simon on the ABC-TV sitcom It's All Relative, to Florida's Contax Guide, Jan. 29.
'When the show has aired, we haven't heard anything from anyone about when Philip and Simon kiss. Or in the pilot episode —in the end we were shown in bed together. That's great. I love that we're flying under the radar.' — Sieber.
'Gay liberation is about having anonymous sex in parks, not because you're married and afraid to have gay sex anywhere else, but because it's fun and you happened to meet some cutie in the park. Gay liberation is about glory holes. About fucking in the toilet of a lesbian bar. I'm not saying everyone must do these things. Sex in bathrooms turns me off, personally. But gay liberation questions social conditioning, pushes the straights ... into thinking about their own hang-ups and helping to create a very different world. About turning conventional morality on its head. About forcing people to refuse to judge based on sexual morality.' — 365Gay.com columnist Eleanor Brown, Feb. 11.
'I performed for Howard Dean about a month and a half ago, and I really loved him. So I'm very disappointed he fucked it up. ... It's over. He's finished. He lost his cool. He's too reactive and he blew it. He has terrible Scorpio anger and he hasn't learned how to harness it yet. So this will be a great spiritual lesson for him.' — Bisexual comedian Sandra Bernhard to the Portland, Ore., gay newspaper Just Out, Feb. 6.
'It's like Sex and the City—it's crap but you can't help but watch it.' — Bernhard commenting on Showtime's The L Word, to the Portland, Ore., gay newspaper Just Out.
'I opposed it [the Defense of Marriage Act] because I thought it was gaybashing on the floor of the United States Senate. It was one of those examples of ideological Republicans trying to drive wedges into the electorate of America, and I objected to the Senate being used for that, even as I still said at the time, 'I don't personally support marriage as we understand it within the context of religion.'' — Presidential candidate John Kerry to National Public Radio's All Things Considered, Feb. 9. Kerry now supports the proposed amendment to the Massachusetts' state constitution, banning same-sex marriages.
'Well, it depends entirely on the language of whether it permits civil union and partnership or not. I'm for civil union. I'm for partnership rights. I think what ought to condition this debate is not the term marriage as much as the rights that people are afforded. Obviously under the Constitution of the United States you need equal protection under the law. And I think equal protection means the rights that go with it. I think the word marriage kind of gets in the way of the whole debate, to be honest with you, because marriage to many people is obviously what is sanctified by a church. It's sacramental. Or by a synagogue or by a mosque or by whatever religious connotation it has. Clearly there's a separation of church and state here. ... Marriage is a separate institution. I think marriage is under the church, between a man and a woman, and I think there's a separate meaning to it. ... Even for those [marriages] that aren't [conducted in churches], there's still two meanings. I mean, the state picked up the concept afterwards. It's a late-comer to the state.' — Presidential candidate John Kerry when asked by National Public Radio's All Things Considered Feb. 9, 'Would you support a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a heterosexual union?' According to campaign staff, Kerry is referring here to the Massachusetts Constitution, not the U.S. Constitution.
'I believe and have fought for the principle that we should protect the fundamental rights of gay and lesbian couples—from inheritance to health benefits. I believe the right answer is civil unions. I oppose gay marriage and disagree with the Massachusetts Court's decision.' — Presidential candidate John Kerry in response to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's Feb. 4 determination that the state must allow same-sex marriage not merely create gay civil unions.
'We are of the opinion that Senate No. 2175 [the proposed civil-unions law] violates the equal protection and due process requirements of the Constitution of the Commonwealth and the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. Further, the particular provisions that render the pending bill unconstitutional ... are not severable from the remainder. The bill maintains an unconstitutional, inferior, and discriminatory status for same-sex couples, and the bill's remaining provisions are too entwined with this purpose to stand independently. ... The answer to the question is 'No.'' — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Feb. 4, answering a question submitted to it by the state Senate which wanted to know if it could create civil unions instead of legalize same-sex marriage.
'While [Will and Jack] are as stereotypical as Amos and Andy, they help humanize gay life. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy does that better for the simple reason that it shows gay and straight men touching and the straight men don't turn gay, which is what I think a lot of straight teenagers think.' — Gay author Felice Picano to Richard Burnett's Three Dollar Bill column in Montreal's Hour newspaper, Jan. 29.
'I don't mind starfuckers. If people stop me in the street and ask if I'm Felice Picano, I'll ask them 'What's in it for me?'' — Picano.
'I have made out with a woman. Once. No, more than once. ... I heard the rumor about me, and I thought maybe there could be something to that. It was fine, but I am not gay. I wish I was. It would be so much easier.' — Actress-author Carrie Fisher to The Advocate, Feb. 3.
'Dude, it's in the rock 'n' roll handbook that all rock stars turning 40 must divorce and marry young actresses.' — Melissa Etheridge to the Dallas Voice, Jan. 23. Etheridge, 42, ended a 12-year relationship with Julie Cypher in 2000 and now is partnered with actress Tammy Lynn Michaels, 28.
'If they don't want us to have sex, why don't they just let us get married?' — Lesbian comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer performing in San Antonio, Texas, Jan. 24, as quoted by the San Antonio Express-News.
'I think Eminem is an extraordinarily talented guy.' — Ellen DeGeneres to Out magazine, February issue.
