'It's so easy to feel superior to the Americans when they have a moron running the country. Even the French would be hard pressed to create a more revolting American stereotype than George Bush's Texas cowboy doofus. His vile record as a presidential bigot and warlord is so perfectly reflected in his public image: his arrogant swagger, his ignorant words and the hokey drawl with which he mangles them.' — David Walberg, publisher of the Toronto gay newspaper Xtra!, in a May 27 editorial.
'The End of Civilization has proven to be the biggest, most over-hyped disappointment since the Y2K bug. No rapture, no floods, no earthquakes, no locusts. (Cicadas do not count.) The firstborn of every family did not die, nor did God strike Massachusetts off the map with an almighty thunderbolt. The weather, from what I could gather, seemed unseasonably pleasant all the way to Provincetown, as thousands of gay and lesbian couples wed across the Bay State.' —Syndicated gay columnist Michelangelo Signorile, May 26.
'Massachusetts's wedding day proved to be the show dog that didn't bark. Americans merely shrugged, confirming polls both before and after that fateful day: voters rate same-sex marriage dead last in importance among issues in an election year dominated by a runaway real war.' — New York Times columnist Frank Rich, June 6.
'You could rename marriage anything— civil unions, marshmallows, whatever you want— and the other side's going to oppose it and they're going to oppose it with every fiber in their body. [Settling for civil unions is like saying] let's send Rosa Parks to the middle of the bus and let's leave her there after she's already made it to the front of the bus.' — Human Rights Campaign President Cheryl Jacques to the St. Louis gay newspaper The Vital Voice, May 14.
'The forces of evil last year spent over $250 million literally pounding into the heads of Americans that we [gays] are bad people not worthy of breathing the same air, walking the same earth, and raising children and teaching, and serving as firefighters and serving our country. It's a David and Goliath fight and there's no question that we're David. We're not going to win this on money, we're going to win this on merit.' — HRC President Cheryl Jacques to the St. Louis gay newspaper The Vital Voice, May 14.
'While some gay residents [of New York City's Chelsea neighborhood] may gasp at straight stroller gridlock, it should come as no surprise. Twenty years ago, when gay men and women began to leave the West Village for Chelsea, straight families moved in to take their place. Now, as Chelsea's gay incumbents disperse to Hell's Kitchen and Washington Heights as well as Fort Greene and Williamsburg in Brooklyn, they are again being replaced by straights. ... Perhaps [the] most striking [development] was the opening of a warehouse-size Buy Buy Baby on Seventh Avenue, near 25th Street, a year and a half ago.' — The New York Times, May 28.
'In 2004, a statement implying that an individual is a homosexual is hardly capable of a defamatory meaning. ... In fact, a finding that such a statement is defamatory requires this Court to legitimize the prejudice and bigotry that for too long have plagued the homosexual community.' — U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner on May 29, dismissing a lawsuit filed by a former bodyguard and boyfriend of Madonna, James Albright, who claimed a photograph in a book and two publications was defamatory because it misidentified him as gay.
'Ever since I had a crush on Lee Majors on the cover of Dynamite magazine in the spring of 1974, I thought, hmmm ... I think I'm different than the other boys. I would get on the school bus and everyone would say, 'Good morning, Lovey Howell,' because I would dress nice. I was blonde and quite striking—always a fashion pioneer.' — Queer Eye for the Straight Guy's Carson Kressley to the Dallas Voice, May 28. Lovey Howell was the wife of millionaire Thurston Howell III on the 1960s sitcom Gilligan's Island.
'I am totally, painfully alone and single. ... And I'm always looking. ... If Britney and Madonna can manage it, so can I.' — Queer Eye for the Straight Guy's Carson Kressley to the Dallas Voice, May 28.
''Sero-sorting' [is] a growing trend in which men who are HIV-positive are deciding in ever-greater numbers that they will only date other positive guys. Sero-sorting is being credited in some circles with lower rates of certain STDs among gay men who are HIV-negative, and it is being praised as a sort of ad hoc, DIY health-promoting movement.' — Syndicated advice columnist Dan Savage writing at PlanetOut.com, June 4.
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THE WHITE HOUSE, Office of the Press Secretary, PRESS BRIEFING BY LARRY SPEAKES, Oct. 15, 1982:
Q: Larry, does the President have any reaction to the announcement—the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, that AIDS is now an epidemic and have over 600 cases?
MR. SPEAKES: What's AIDS?
Q: Over a third of them have died. It's known as 'gay plague.' (Laughter.) No, it is. I mean it's a pretty serious thing that one in every three people that get this have died. And I wondered if the President is aware of it?
MR. SPEAKES: I don't have it. Do you? (Laughter.)
Q: No, I don't.
MR. SPEAKES: You didn't answer my question.
Q: Well, I just wondered, does the President –
MR. SPEAKES: How do you know? (Laughter.)
Q: In other words, the White House looks on this as a great joke?
MR. SPEAKES: No, I don't know anything about it, Lester.
Q: Does the President, does anyone in the White House know about this epidemic, Larry?
MR. SPEAKES: I don't think so. I don't think there's been any –
Q: Nobody knows?
MR. SPEAKES: There has been no personal experience here, Lester.
Q: No, I mean, I thought you were keeping —
MR. SPEAKES: I checked thoroughly with Dr. Ruge this morning and he's had no—(laughter)—no patients suffering from AIDS or whatever it is.
Q: The President doesn't have gay plague, is that what you're saying or what?
MR. SPEAKES: No, I didn't say that.
Q: Didn't say that?
MR. SPEAKES: I thought I heard you on the State Department over there. Why didn't you stay there? (Laughter.)
Q: Because I love you Larry, that's why (Laughter.)
MR. SPEAKES: Oh I see. Just don't put it in those terms, Lester. (Laughter.)
Q: Oh, I retract that.
MR. SPEAKES: I hope so.
Q: It's too late.
— Transcript taken from the prologue to Jon Cohen's book, Shots in the Dark.
