PicturedGay City News in New York.
'The slaying of [Nicholas] Berg was a somber coda to two weeks of increasingly revolting revelations—in both testimony and, especially, photographs—of human rights abuses carried out by U.S. military personnel overseeing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison. Coming shortly after the one-year anniversary of the war, and at the end of the bloodiest month for American service members, the revelations about Abu Ghraib were for many Americans—and surely most of the rest of the world—the last straw for the Bush/Rumsfeld policy.' — Gay City News of New York, May 13. The headline on Page One: 'Impeach Rumsfeld.'
'On the front page of this newspaper, we assert that the military's culture of homophobia lies at the heart of the current scandal. That is not to suggest that other factors—including racism and misogyny—are not also at play in creating the environment that made Abu Ghraib possible. At the same time, as pictures such as the image presented on page one and an investigative report completed in March by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba make unmistakably clear, military personnel used same-gender sexual harassment, including anti-gay slurs, forced masturbation, and the threat and reality of rape, as critical aspects of their abuse.' — Gay City News.
'Unfortunately, homophobia has a long history in the military and it will take courageous and assertive leadership to root it out. Donald Rumsfeld is but the latest in a long string of national leaders who have failed to provide that leadership. It could be argued that the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, which requires gay men and lesbians to hide the truth about their lives and makes it harder for those harassed to complain for fear of implicitly 'telling,' leads to the sort of depravity witnessed at Abu Ghraib.' — GCN.
'I think that the hallmark of gay people is that they have a substantially lowered self-esteem; that's why it's taken us so long to come around and demand equality!' — Queer As Folk actor Robert Gant to Chicago's Windy City Times, April 21.
'All our ministrations—the gym workouts, the grooming products—haven't produced the slightest advance in male beauty. In fact, by adding self-consciousness, one could argue that young-guy Abercrombie-ish photos today are in fact far less attractive. Nothing says sexy more strongly than a person who doesn't know it.' — From an Out magazine write-up on the new photo book At Ease: Navy Men of World War II, in the May issue.
'[In the past] when gay culture was attacked we headed for the hills of high art to sort of protect ourselves. People like Oscar Wilde, Jean Cocteau. ... We just aren't doing that right now. The intellectual level has been lowered. It's a generation of window-dressers once again.' — Singer Rufus Wainwright to Toronto's Xtra!, April 15.
'Crystal meth is ravaging a lot of gay men's lives. The gay press aren't talking about it [nor] rising HIV rates and the onslaught of depression. [Instead] there's this idea of wanting to be presentable to Oprah or something.' — Wainwright to Toronto's Xtra!
'The White Party will forever be about getting fucked up, and life's little fuckovers, like HIV and drug addiction, will always be checked at the door. ... It's an endless cycle of a bad scene put together by bad people who run to the bank knowing all too well about the bad combination of horny gay men, and hard drugs, mixed with one non-stop party followed by another, and adding the deadliest ingredient of all: a hotel room that is only an elevator hop, skip and a bump away.' — Columnist Paulo Murillo in Los Angeles' fab!, May 7.
'Little has changed at the White Party Tweak Fest. Aside from the $20 cover charge for the once-free pool party and the rigged drinking water fountains that forced you to fork over $5 for a bottle of water that normally costs $1, it was pretty much the same sorority-reject-cookie-cut-out-half-baked cunts that you witness every year. Nothing new, fun and exciting happened that would lure me back to this desert wasteland of wasted time, wasted money and wasted people again!' — Murillo in Los Angeles' fab!
'One of the things about cruising and having a secret sex life for so long is that I think it helped me keep my feet on the ground. And it meant I was constantly meeting ordinary people. How else would I have done that ... and be on their level?' — Pop singer George Michael to Britain's Attitude magazine, May issue. Michael, 40, was outed in 1998 after being arrested for allegedly waving his willy at a hunky undercover cop in a Beverly Hills, Calif., park toilet.
'In Provincetown these days you see men taking their babies to Herring Cove Beach. You wonder what will happen to cruising when men carry their babies to Herring Cove Beach.' — Author Thomas King, director of graduate studies at Brandeis University, to the Los Angeles Times, April 25.
'Gay men should not adopt the sophomoric model of heterosexual dating; gay men should always have sex first.' — Author John Rechy to the Los Angeles Times, April 25.
'Last year, the whole [gay] community was gaga over what a wonderful guy Howard Dean was because he signed the civil-unions bill. But that was nine months ago. Now that's not enough. What was a radical notion a year ago is now the default position.' — U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., to The New York Observer, April 26.
'I decided I wouldn't come out to my parents until I had a boyfriend, not so much because I felt they would accept him but because they would be forced to see normal, functioning gay people. Unfortunately, my plan went awry. I had created a new America Online screen name (RINYboi), and when my father noticed this strange screen name on the family's computer, he called AOL, got the password, and looked at the mailbox. He told me he didn't read my mail but that he could tell by my screen name and the other screen names in my mailbox that the account was being used for 'homosexual activity.'' — Jamiel Terry, son of antigay activist Randall Terry, coming out in the May issue of Out magazine.
'The word 'queer' has been transformed from a pejorative to a semi-snooty school of thought—in even casual conversation, 'queer' is likely to be followed by terms such as 'cinema' or 'aesthetic' or 'studies.'' — Reporter Mary McNamara writing in the Los Angeles Times, April 25.
'I love doing those shows [in gay clubs] because you can do things like come out from a cocoon or in a gorilla suit. You can ride in on a horse and it's all good. In a gay club it's not important to act grown up.' — Singer Cyndi Lauper to the Houston Voice, April 23.
