Pictured Queer As Folk actor Scott Lowell.
'For some time now, I have been suffering from severe stress and emotional pain. I have experienced great inner turmoil. The reasons for this are of course intensely personal, and I am not prepared to discuss them. ... This accumulated stress culminated last Friday in my engaging in an act that was totally inexplicable and unthinkable. While attending a public jewelry sale, I pocketed a piece of jewelry. ... Something just snapped in this moment of utter irrationality.' — Gay Canadian Member of Parliament Svend Robinson April 15 telling reporters that he stole a $50,000 ring. Robinson went to police, confessed, returned the ring, and announced he is taking a medical leave from politics.
'Several men have told investigators they allowed themselves to be stripped, blindfolded, suspended upside-down, whipped and bound about the genitals while praying for penance.' — The Associated Press reporting on the case against Wheatland, Wyo., Roman Catholic priest Anthony Jablonowski, April 20.
'It is time to bring to an end, once and for all, the intolerable discrimination still suffered by many Spaniards exclusively by virtue of their sexual preferences. Homosexuals and transsexuals deserve the same public consideration as heterosexuals and have the right to live freely the life that they themselves have chosen. We will recognize, on an equal basis, their right to marriage, with the consequent effects on labor rights, inheritance and social security protection.' — New Spanish Prime Minister José Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero, April 15.
'Gays and lesbians have experienced a dramatic rise in acceptance over the last two decades, according to a new Los Angeles Times Poll. Almost seven in 10 Americans know someone who is gay or lesbian and say they would not be troubled if their elementary school-age child had a homosexual teacher. Six in 10 say they are sympathetic to the gay community, displaying an increasing inclination to view same-sex issues through a prism of societal accommodation rather than moral condemnation. On questions ranging from job discrimination to adoption to whether homosexuality is morally wrong, responses indicate that as gays and lesbians have become more open, heterosexuals in return have become more open toward them. The change has come within one generation.' — The Los Angeles Times, April 11.
'There is a culture war going on between us and the radical right. And this [Log Cabin Republicans national] convention sends a message back to Washington, D.C., and to Republican leaders: We're here to stay, we're gonna win this [marriage] battle and we're on the right side of history. We're a very conservative group on just about every issue, except we're not going to be treated as second-class citizens.' — Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director Patrick Guerriero to the Los Angeles Times, April 17.
'I've been covering national GLBT news for a decade or so now, and although our communal status in this country has risen tremendously in that time, we are taking a beating right now. I can feel it. It's tangible. It's ugly, or as George Bush might say, evil. But it may also represent the final last-ditch assault on the idea that gay and lesbian Americans are unfit for an equal place in society.' — Syndicated gay-press writer Ann Rostow, April 15.
'The train is out of the station and we don't think we can get it back in.' — Karl Rove, George W. Bush's chief political advisor, in a written response to bisexual former U.S. Rep. Michael Huffington, R-Calif., after Huffington wrote Rove asking him to abandon the idea of amending the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, according to the Los Angeles Times, April 17.
'I'm the generation that said marriage is for a man and woman. But all that changed dramatically this year. I feel very strongly, and I want to speak out publicly as much as necessary to defeat this amendment, which is mean-spirited, will do nothing to save traditional marriage and will lock the hands of people in future generations from joining together in matrimonial bliss.' — Bisexual former U.S. Rep. Michael Huffington, R-Calif., to the Los Angeles Times, April 20. Huffington, 56, recently donated $200,000 to the gay Log Cabin Republicans to fund TV ads against the proposed U.S. constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
'Remember the days when AIDS activists engaged in colorful street protests that dramatized the government's indifference to the deadly epidemic? Those poignant demonstrations have been replaced by—well, by nothing really, except for funding and grant proposals.' — Washington Blade Executive Editor Chris Crain in an April 9 editorial.
'The AIDS activists of yore have gone corporate and been largely co-opted by bloated AIDS organization that are now so dependent on funding from the government and large pharmaceutical companies that they have lost their critical voice.' — Washington Blade Executive Editor Chris Crain.
'We at Showtime look at ourselves as the San Francisco of television.' — Showtime network president Tom Greenblatt to the San Francisco Bay Times, April 15.
'I'm very annoyed that as fine an actor as Sharon Gless is that she has not even been nominated [for an Emmy]. I feel that way about a lot of members of our cast. ... I don't think certain people of the gay community have been any more friendly and supportive of the show than the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences [has been].' — Queer As Folk Executive Producer Ron Cowen to the St. Louis gay newspaper The Vital Voice, April 9.
'Ted's the guy in the cubicle next to people who say they don't know any gay people.' — Queer As Folk actor Scott Lowell in reference to his QAF character, to the Houston Voice, April 16.
'If anything, we're tame from what I've seen go on in real-life gay bars and back rooms where we shoot. I've seen things that would make your eyelashes flutter.' — Queer As Folk actor Scott Lowell (Ted) to the Houston Voice.
'QAF obviously is not the show for everybody, but it's still the drama series least likely to play it safe and most likely to turn bluenoses red with rage. It's hard to be daring in today's shock-pocked culture, but Queer as Folk is still in there pitching, innovating and taking admirable risks.' — Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales, April 18.
'BEAR WATCH: Jesse Ventura just got even sexier with that beard. If that were possible.' — Gay journalist Andrew Sullivan writing on his blog, andrewsullivan.com, April 16.
