Pictured The L Word actress Mia Kirshner.
'I think it's entirely who you are from birth, personally. Some people might choose, but I think that it's who you are. I think people need to be able to be who they are. I have a friend who was married for many years and then the marriage dissolved and he came out and he announced that he was gay, and he lived this life of tension, and of great difficulty. And I don't think that's a kind of choice. I think that's being who you are. It's in your system. It's in your genes. ... I think that people have a right in America to be who they are, who they are born as, and we are all God's children, and that is my view.' — Presidential candidate John Kerry in a March 26 MTV interview.
'My feeling is that what is important is equal protection under the law. An equal-protection clause, I think, pertains to the rights you give to people, not to the name you give to something, so I'm for civil unions. That gives people the rights: the rights of partnership, the rights of inheritance of property, the rights of taxation and so forth. But I think there is a distinction between what we have traditionally called 'marriage' between a man and a woman and those rights. ... I believe very strongly that we can advance the cause of equality by moving toward civil unions. But that's where my position is at this point in time. What is distinct is the institutional name. Whatever people look at as the sacrament within a church or within a synagogue or within a mosque as a religious institution, there is a distinction. The civil state really just adopted that. It's the rights that are important, not the name of the institution.' — Presidential candidate John Kerry in a March 26 MTV interview.
'I am going to be tonight very strongly on the side of those who are fighting for a legal frame in which they can develop their relationship normally in their lives. In other words, gay marriage—yes, please! Absolutely yes!' — Actor Antonio Banderas at the GLAAD Media Awards, March 27 in Los Angeles.
'I am bound by law and common sense to decide this issue on the basis of the evidence and not on unfounded fears or prejudices or on a reaction to the vociferous comments of an isolated and uninformed segment of the community.' — Justice Heidi Polowin of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice awarding child custody to a lesbian Mohawk Indian mother over the objections of her Mohawk estranged husband, who claimed Mohawk culture shuns homosexuals, March 16.
'Some gay activist in California called for mass civil disobedience until we get the right to marry. God! What could be more dreary? Our movement has become about lusting for weddings and lavender picket fences. It's so embarrassing—I feel like turning in my gay card.' — Longtime New York City gay activist Bill Dobbs to the Washington Post, March 31.
'Neither of us practices monogamy. Well, if one of you does, it's really sad, isn't it? And yes, it works.' — Gay singer George Michael to Marie Claire magazine, April issue. Michael's longtime partner is Kenny Goss.
'You have to look at what Bush does, not what he says. Talk is cheap. He expresses empathy for military families and then cuts their benefits. He names a proposal 'The Clear Skies Initiative' that pollutes the planet. He says he'll be a uniter and then drives us apart. He steals the slogan 'No Child Left Behind' and then breaks his promise to fund his reforms. Truly, I stand here flabbergasted at what is going on in today's world. Never in my life have I witnessed a president and an administration that is so out of step with the needs of the country, so threatening to our future and so abusive in its use of power.' — Barbra Streisand receiving the Human Rights Campaign's Humanitarian Award, March 6.
'Current civil union legislation doesn't go far enough in protecting equal rights. We must not deny gay families many of the benefits that help keep families strong—Social Security, pensions, veterans' support, inheritance, the right to take unpaid leave to care for a spouse—the list goes on and on.' — Barbra Streisand receiving the Human Rights Campaign's Humanitarian Award, March 6.
'Greeks are interesting because the men don't necessarily feel that having a gay experience—or gay experiences—mark them. Not that there isn't homophobia in Greece. There is. But there seems to be also another kind of thinking that a man is not diminished because he has had—or continues to have from time to time—homosexual experiences. It's interesting.' — Actress Olympia Dukakis to Washington, D.C.'s Metro Weekly, April 1.
'I don't care if people think I'm gay. Gender is of no consequence to me. It's a person's brain that counts.' — The L Word actress Mia Kirshner (Jenny) to The New York Times, April 5.
'There's something I ... would like to say to the bisexual community on behalf of all the homos out there. Would you please, for the love of God, stop wrapping your appeals for compassion and understanding in bullshit bi-supremacist rhetoric? Perhaps we homos wouldn't be so annoyed with you bisexuals if you didn't run around saying things like, 'I see people as individuals and passionately love all people regardless of gender.' Do you think it helps create peace, harmony and understanding between homos and bisexuals when bisexuals accuse homos of seeing people as ... what? Nonindividuals? Your partners are people, our partners are walking, talking cocks or pussies? You fall in love with people, we fall in love with genitals? Gee, thanks for clearing that up for us. Pardon me if I don't march with the bisexual brigade at the GLBTQRSTUVWXYZ parade.' — Columnist Dan Savage, Gay.com, April 8.
'[John Kerry] is less inclined [than George Bush] to have a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. That's not the federal government's business, and what that really is—President Bush knows that's not going to pass. What it really is, is a thinly veiled appeal to people's bigotry about gay and lesbian people, and I think that's unnecessary, and I think John Kerry won't do that.' — Former presidential candidate Howard Dean appearing on the SIRIUS satellite network's gay OutQ channel, April 7.
'I looked at the dynamics of the women I've known in L.A., and tried to cut a broad swath through that community. And I think that I look forward to getting beyond that community, too. Because our L.A. lesbian community is very specific—kind of anthropologically specific. But that's where it begins for me—because those are my stories, and those are the ones I'm starting out telling.' — The L Word creator Ilene Chaiken to PlanetOut.com, April 8.
'People [who watch TV] believe we are all single, rich white males ... and are all good at interior decorating. We need a more realistic portrayal of our lives.' — National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman speaking at Johns Hopkins University, April 7.
'It's never going to happen. I haven't squeezed into our costumes for years.' — Abba's Bjorn Ulvaeus on why the Swedish '70s supergroup will never get back together, to Britain's the Sun, April 9.
'I said: 'I'm a gay man. Amy and I don't live together, we don't love each other, we don't want to have babies, I have a partner at home and a kid, can Amy and I get a marriage license even though you know it's a sham, a joke and we are not serious about each other?' The clerk said, 'Yes, of course, because you are a man and a woman.' The sanctity of marriage is all about a matched set of genitals. ... We are going to try and stay married for about 55 hours and 10 minutes. We are going to just best Britney Spears.' — Syndicated gay columnist Dan Savage, editor of the Seattle alternative weekly The Stranger, following his April 9 marriage to lesbian Stranger reporter Amy Jenniges, to KLEW-TV.
'I think it is crazy to think that just because you are gay you have a great sense of style.' — Openly gay designer Isaac Mizrahi to San Diego's Gay & Lesbian Times, April 8.
'I love that show [Queer Eye for the Straight Guy]. It is really good for gay people. I call it the 'gay face.' Like the 'black face.' I guess every minority has to go through it before they are embraced by society as a whole.' — Openly gay designer Isaac Mizrahi to San Diego's Gay & Lesbian Times, April 8.
'You're attacked in social settings. You lose dates. It's not easy [being a gay Republican].' — Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director Patrick Guerriero to The New York Times, April 11.
'The far right is so determined. They are constantly talking about gay people. They are more obsessed about gay people than we are.' — Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director Patrick Guerriero to The New York Times, April 11.