'You know this president. He likes to go all out. Suffice it to say he wasn't whistling show tunes.' — A spokesperson for President Bush after he fell off his bike Saturday in Texas.
'Family life is sanctified in the joining of man and woman in the sacramental institution of holy matrimony. The Church teaches that the love of man and woman made holy in the sacrament of marriage is a mirror of God's everlasting love for his creation. ... [Some people] appear to lack a proper understanding of the intrinsically religious dimension of this covenant.' — Pope John Paul to visiting American bishops Saturday. he urged them to fight the same-sex marriage movement. President Bush will meet the pope in Rome on June 4.
'It's [same-sex marriage] something people should talk about and debate. I'm in favor of the debate.' — First Lady Laura Bush refusing a reporter's invitation to endorse the proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning same-sex marriage, to the Boston Globe, May 21.
'Sure, of course.' — First Lady Laura Bush when asked by the Boston Globe May 21 'whether she would invite a married, gay couple to a state dinner at the White House.' Mrs. Bush's press secretary, Gordon Johndroe, interrupted to say he could not imagine such a situation arising. Johndroe also accused the reporter who asked the question of 'trivializing an issue that people are seriously trying to debate in this country.'
'The sacred institution of marriage should not be redefined by a few activist judges. All Americans have a right to be heard in this debate. I called on the Congress to pass, and to send to the states for ratification, an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of a man and a woman as husband and wife. The need for that amendment is still urgent, and I repeat that call today.' — George W. Bush as Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to let same-sex couples marry, May 17.
'I feel overwhelmed. I feel ready to collapse. ... I'm shaking so much, I'm really ready to faint.' — Marcia Hams who, with wife Susan Shepherd, received the first fully sanctioned marriage license given to a same-sex couple in the United States, in Cambridge, Mass., May 17.
'This is the most memorable day of my life.' — Cheryl Andrews, chairwoman of the Provincetown, Mass., Board of Selectmen, following her May 17 marriage to longtime partner Jennifer Germack. Massachusetts is the first state to let same-sex couples marry.
'It's like a madhouse here, darling. Everyone's giving flowers. It's just gorgeous.' — Provincetown, Mass., Board of Selectmen secretary Vernon Porter as Massachusetts became the first state to open marriage to same-sex couples, to the Los Angeles Times, May 17.
'I am very proud to be mayor of the city on this particular day. We have broken down another barrier. That is what life is all about—breaking down barriers and making this an open society for everyone to live in, to cherish each other and to have a great life.' — Boston Mayor Tom Menino as he escorted same-sex couples into Boston City Hall to buy their marriage licenses May 17.
'I think part of our challenge as a movement is to truly believe that we can enlist non-gay allies and non-gay support if we would talk to our neighbors, family members and friends. It's almost a cliché but that's how social change happens, and we have the opportunity to do it. We're in a period of tremendous organic change right now. We've hit the tipping point and, again, it's not going to come without attacks, but we can make it happen if we engage ourselves and don't under-reach.' — Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, to Washington, D.C.'s Metro Weekly, May 20.
'I hear they're registered at Bed, Bath and Bend Over.' — Host Jay Leno joking on The Tonight Show May 13 about the same-sex marriage of the Village People cowboy, Randy Jones.
'I'm a Canadian, and I can't vote. But I'm very active in terms of how global an impact the United States has. Of course, I'm a Democrat, and I may be supporting John Kerry down the line somewhere.' — Lesbian singer k.d. lang to the Dallas Voice, May 14.
'I have had, and probably will still have, a pretty exotic lifestyle. ... I am probably more heterosexual than I am homosexual, or even bisexual.' — Singer Deborah Harry (Blondie) to the British lesbian magazine Diva, June issue.
'My first great love was a woman. It was in high school, and I was at the tender age of 18. At that age, of course, our feelings are very raw and intense. I fell head over heels, helplessly in love with a teacher of mine. ... She did not want to have anything to do with me.' — Queer As Folk's Thea Gill (Lindsay) to Chicago's Windy City Times, May 12.
'I think the internal core of me as a person probably has the ability to fall in love with either a man or a woman. Probably if I hadn't met [my husband] Brian, I could easily have gone one way or the other.' — Thea Gill to Windy City Times.
'Bush is an incompetent leader. In fact, he's not a leader. He's a person who has no judgment, no experience and no knowledge of the subjects that he has to decide upon. ... The shallowness that he has brought to the office has not changed since he got there. ... The president's capacity to lead has never been there. In order to lead, you have to have judgment. In order to have judgment, you have to have knowledge and experience. He has none.' — House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, to the San Francisco Chronicle, May 20.
'Totally San Fran.' — Message header of a Republican National Committee e-mail attacking U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
