Pictured QAF's Hal Sparks in The Advocate.
'The argument against legalizing gay marriage must be the same as the argument against legalizing drugs: If you legalize gay marriage, everyone will want to do it. Clearly, we all have these massive, pent-up, homosexual urges waiting to erupt, once we get the giddyap go-ahead from the government. George Bush and Dick Cheney might take up residence together in a simply darling Crystal City duplex. If gays are allowed to get married, guys like me will start looking at our wives and thinking, wait a minute, I have to settle for this weak little, squeaky-voiced, thong-wearing thing when Sylvester Stallone is available?' — Gene Weingarten writing in the Washington Post, March 21.
'I guess the real reason to oppose gay marriage is that God is opposed to it, as certified by Leviticus (Lev. 20:13). Because this is an actual book of the Bible, we must obey everything it says literally, which is why Bill Cosby, Newt Gingrich, Albert Einstein and Bill Clinton have all been duly put to death for adultery, the prescribed punishment (Lev. 20:10). Or why anyone who shaves his head (Lev. 21:5) or wears clothing made from both wool and linen together (Lev. 19:19) or marries a divorced woman (Lev. 21:7) has been publicly condemned as a sinner. Or why any married couple that has sex when the woman is menstruating has been banished from civilized society and left to wander the earth (Lev. 20:18).' — Gene Weingarten writing in the Washington Post, March 21.
'I think in the general populace more people are afraid of anal sex than death—of being on the receiving end of it. When people talk about going off to prison, they never talk about being killed in prison.' — Queer As Folk's Hal Sparks (Michael) to The Advocate, March 30.
'The fundamentalist Christians and the Catholic Church and the Republicans and the Bob Jones University assholes and the Fox media guys, they're not fun to hang around with. They're mean, and you can't have a normal conversation with them. So why bother?' — Queer As Folk's Hal Sparks (Michael) to The Advocate, March 30.
'You know what, I am gay, but my sexuality has never been my defining quality. It's just a fact. My life is defined by my friends and by my interests, and I happen to be passionate about good design.' — Queer Eye for the Straight Guy's Thom Filicia to The New York Times, March 25.
'That's not the image we want.' — Gale McGovern, community outreach coordinator for the New Paltz [N.Y.] Equality Initiative, after Darrell Martin of Dublin, N.H., pulled down his pants and mooned a group of antigay protesters picketing his wedding, according to the Kingston Daily Freeman, March 23. Martin was arrested for public lewdness and released on $100 bail.
'Look at the way Vice President Cheney squirms when he voices support for President Bush's policy to write discrimination into our nation's Constitution, betraying not only millions of Americans but his own daughter. ... Last week, Bush restated his determination to a Colorado evangelical Christian convention that Mary Cheney should never be allowed to marry the love of her life. This is wrong, and history will not look kindly on these attacks on gay couples and families.' — Gay Providence, R.I., Mayor David Cicilline addressing the University of Rhode Island's 10th annual conference on gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and intersexed issues, May 25 in South Kingstown, R.I., according to The Providence Journal.
'Right before Christmas, Jamie McConnell arrived at the Lake Country School [in Minneapolis], as he does most days of the week, to pick up his son, Ben, 3. ... Mr. McConnell had plenty of time to watch Ben romp and to invite one of his classmates and his mother home for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. For years, Mr. McConnell ate very different lunches. He was a corporate litigator at Dorsey & Whitney, among the country's most prestigious law firms. But since he and Dr. Bill Atmore, an anesthesiologist, adopted Ben as an infant, taking care of the child has been his full-time job. Dr. Atmore, his partner of eight years, works full time. In assuming those roles, demographers say, the two are part of an emerging population of gay men who are not only raising children but are also committed to the idea that one parent should leave the workplace to do it. Of 9,328 same-sex couples with children whose census returns were randomly selected for analysis by the Census Bureau, 26 percent of the male couples included a stay-at-home parent, said Gary Gates, a demographer with the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington. That figure is one percentage point more than for married couples with children and four percentage points higher than for female couples.' — The New York Times.
'What is even more difficult, though, is to have your loyalty thrown back in your face by the very people with whom you have united—and to arrive at that moment of truth when you must acknowledge that those who have confronted you, or snickered behind your back, may, in fact, have a point.' — New York Times Magazine April 11 feature on the Log Cabin Republicans and President Bush's recent backing of an anti-gay gay marriage amendment.
'I am just broken-hearted.' — Mark Mead, Log Cabin's director of public affairs, to The New York Times on the Bush amendment.
'What people from outside political Washington may not fully realize is the extent to which gay and lesbian staff members populate offices in the executive branch and Congress—and by no means just on the Democratic side. 'The perception outside the Beltway would be that if there are gay staff members, they must work on Barney Frank's or Teddy Kennedy's staff,' said Christopher Barron, Log Cabin's political director. 'The reality is there are gay men and women working in tons of Republican offices, in the White House and in the president's re-election campaign.'' — The New York Times.
'This is definitely a more closeted city than some other places. We're in conservative professions here. If you work for someone, your job as an aide is to be in the background, not part of the story and certainly not part of some whispering campaign. But oh, my God, this town could not function without the gays and lesbians who by and large don't have responsibilities for children, who can work 80 hours and who sacrifice everything on behalf of their careers.' — David Catania, a Republican city councilman in D.C. who is gay, to The New York Times.
'There is a line that's been crossed ... It isn't a line like, 'Oh, gosh, I'm sorry.' It isn't trivial. This is a grave transgression. It's hateful and it's wrong.' — Catania.
'I'm not sure. I haven't really reached that point yet.' — Catania, asked by The New York Times if his disenchantment with Bush on marriage would push him to vote Democratic for President this year.
