'It's difficult for me to imagine Justin as a real person. He's so thoroughly a character created for serial television. How could I be friends with someone who has nervous breakdowns at spilled marinara sauce, assaults high school enemies with small firearms, and has been systematically and repeatedly betrayed, lied to, condescended to, and humiliated by his boyfriend for four years?' — Queer As Folk actor Randy Harrison, who plays Justin, to the Advocate, July 6 issue.
'I find it ridiculous when people talk about QAF like it's supposed to carry some enormous humanitarian agenda. No one expects The O.C. to change the world.' — Queer As Folk actor Randy Harrison, who plays Justin, to the Advocate, July 6 issue.
'Seven years ago, Ellen DeGeneres came out and became übergay. Now she's salvaged her career by going back in the closet. Is this really progress?' — Headline on an editorial by Houston Voice Executive Editor Chris Crain, June. 4.
'If I had gotten famous, gotten my own TV show, and then come out, oh my god, then you're like a freaking goddess. But if you take the risk from the beginning and kind of ghetto-ize yourself, in their eyes, it's not the same. The gay media—and I love the gay media, I subscribe to everything— but if some famous singer who isn't gay says some gay-friendly thing, they'll be on the cover of every magazine. If they find out Harrison Ford's half-brother or stepbrother is gay, he'd be the spokesperson for the gay community. I don't blame them, because straight or gay, we're so celebrity-driven. They already know about me. 'Oh, Suzanne? She's been gay forever.'' — Lesbian comic Suzanne Westenhoefer to the Salt Lake Tribune, June 11.
'This is an election year. Are you into politics (not the politics of dancing!)? Do you vote? And obviously gay marriage is a super hot topic. Please give us your thoughts on gay marriage. Would you want to? Is there anyone special in your life that you'd want to stand up with?' — Questions that Queer Eye for the Straight Guy's Jai Rodriguez refused to answer in an e-mail interview with the Houston Voice, June 4.
'If only there was a reality show displaying what queer eyes truly witness amongst our fellow queer guys. One visit to the creepy leather bars that are sprinkled all over Silverlake would tear down the gay fashion maven stereotypes forever.' — Columnist Paulo Murillo in Los Angeles' Fab, June 18.
'Because Reagan said nothing for so long and said too little when he finally did, and because his administration failed to act more aggressively, precious time was lost in [AIDS] research and prevention. No amount of rosy press coverage or warm personal remembrances can remove that bloody stain from the Reagan record.' — Washington Blade Executive Editor Chris Crain in a June 11 editorial.
'Reagan's conservative credentials would have allowed him to introduce sanity and scientific reason into the early days of the AIDS crisis. Instead, The Gipper played a moralistic game of political football. As a result, funding for treatment, research, and prevention was needlessly delayed or denied and tens of thousands of Americans died prematurely—nearly 30,000 by the end of his presidency.' — Former Outweek editor Andrew Miller writing in New York City's Gay City News, June 10.
'The [anti-Reagan] outpouring from my gay peers has been hateful, distasteful, bitter. They wrongly blame him for killing the people that died from AIDS from the '80s up through the present day. In typical fashion, they ignore the fact that the Democrat-controlled Congress offered no more funding than Reagan's administration. ... Dancing on graves is a terrible business. On Saturday, I got a call from a friend celebrating the death of Reagan. I felt for a moment ashamed to be gay. I hadn't felt that since the Clinton Administration. Reagan believed that there was a hero in all of us. Whether black, white, gay, straight, male or female, he aimed at inspiring the best from us. That most gay people will remember Reagan with hatred and disrespect speaks more of where our movement is headed than of the great man at the receiving end of it.' — New York Blade Associate Editor Cyd Zeigler Jr. in a June 11 opinion column.
'For the surviving victims of the conservative social and economic policies of the Reagan-Bush era, the past few days of all-Reagan-all-the-time television coverage by Stepford journalists have seemed oddly and horribly familiar. They remind us of the stark cultural divide that emerged ever more powerfully during the Reagan years between the privileged classes holding power and those who were marginalized, oppressed and silenced.' — Longtime gay activist Eric Rofes writing in the June 17 issue of the San Diego gay newspaper Update.
'The right to marry ought to be clear, unambiguous, emphatic, and non-contradictory. It should not be minimized, given an asterisk, or subject to political sacrifice at political conventions.' — Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich at Boston's gay-pride parade, June 12.
'Standing on Capitol Hill listening, you don't hear anything [about gay marriage].' — Tony Perkins, president of the anti-gay Family Research Council, to the Washington Post, June 19.
'I have a sneaking suspicion that this [gay marriage] is not an issue many people [opponents] want to stay worked up about. ... You don't hear Bush talking about it very often. He talks about it once every few months, then drops it. That may be reflective of what they've learned about how much people want to hear about this.' — Pew Research Center pollster Michael Dimock to the Washington Post, June 19.
'Mary Cheney used her 'lesbian celebrity' status in 2000 and 2002 to woo gay votes and gay money for the Republican party. Now that Mary Cheney's promise of a 'compassionate conservative' Bush administration has fallen flat, she owes an apology to the one million gay Republicans who voted for Bush-Cheney in 2000.' — John Aravosis, creator of DearMary.com, announcing a new ad campaign on June 21 urging U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's openly lesbian (but neo-closety) daughter Mary to help fight the proposed U.S. constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
'If straight girls were getting HIV or STDs in bathhouses at the appalling levels that gay men are, they would be shut already. It's a way society demonstrates that it doesn't give a shit about us.' — Syndicated gay columnist Dan Savage to San Diego's City Beat, June 19.
'The only appropriate health message around bathhouses is 'Don't go,' and the health departments know it and they won't say it because they are afraid of being called homophobic. Well, boo-fucking-hoo, they are the health department. Somebody has got to be daddy and somebody has got to stop worrying about what they will be seen as.' — Syndicated gay columnist Dan Savage to San Diego's City Beat, June 19.
