Pictured Graham Norton
'Young male prisoners were filmed being sodomized by American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, according to the journalist who first revealed the abuses there. Seymour Hersh, who reported on the torture of the prisoners in New Yorker magazine in May, told an audience in San Francisco that 'it's worse. ... The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling, and the worst part is the soundtrack, of the boys shrieking. And this is your government at war.'' — Independent U.K., July 16.
'So urgent is the Army's need for more troops in Iraq and Afghanistan that it recently summoned 5,600 ex-active duty soldiers back into uniform. But the need might not have been so great if the Army hadn't cashiered 6,300 troops for being gay over the past six years.' — Time Magazine July 19.
'The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network ... released data last week showing that of the gay troops removed, 3,100 held jobs that are currently in demand. Those kicked out included truck drivers, medics, radio operators and combat engineers—the same kinds of soldiers the Pentagon is now seeking.... An Army spokesman declined to comment on the numbers except to say the service is merely carrying out the 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy, which allows the service to discharge soldiers who reveal they are gay.' — Time Magazine.
'Ongoing violence in Iraq has forced the U.S. Army to take extra ordinary—extraordinary steps to maintain troop strength there, with reserve forces now carrying much of the burden. But even as it calls up more and more reservists, the Army is cutting loose many fully trained, active-duty troops.' — CBS Evening News, July 12.
'Everyone knows the Army is stretched thin. So why would it spend nearly two years training Alastair Gamble to be an interrogator and Arabic linguist, only to discharge him? ... Don't Ask, Don't Tell—the policy which allows gays to serve in the military only if they are not found out. Gamble was found out and then kicked out, even though he was at the top of his class. ... The military is continuing to discharge gays, some of them with training in fields like intelligence and foreign languages, while at the same time it is calling up reservists to fill shortages in many of those same fields.' — CBS Evening News, July 12.
'UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has blamed the slow progress towards controlling the HIV/Aids pandemic on lack of political leadership. He said governments have failed to implement objectives they set at the General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, last year, in which they promised to reduce the scale and impact of the epidemic by 2005.' — East African Standard in Nairobi, Kenya, July 13.
'Annan said empowering women and girls to protect themselves against the virus was yet another crucial step. 'In the past few years we have seen a terrifying pattern emerging all over the world where women are increasing bearing the brunt of the epidemic,' he said.' — East African Standard.
'My opinion is that I don't care one way or the other.' — California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger when asked June 24 in Sacramento if gay couples should have access to marriage, according to the June 25 Los Angeles Times.
'All of these supposedly heterosexual fashion editors at GQ and Esquire say Orlando Bloom or David Beckham is the best-dressed man. But what they're really saying is that they fancy them, because all they're wearing is jeans and a T-shirt. I don't think they hate me because I'm gay. I think they hate me because I'm not beautiful.' — British talk show host and GQ's 'worst-dressed man' Graham Norton, whose new U.S. program, The Graham Norton Effect, debuted on Comedy Central June 24, to the Associated Press, June 23.
'We're still feeling the ripple of the [Janet Jackson] nipple. Our timing isn't great, but funny's funny. In the end we're going to make our show and they'll beep it and blur it and you still get the joke. But for some weird reason, you just can't be seeing it.' — British talk show host Graham Norton to the Associated Press, June 23.
'The upside of being a celebrity is you get a higher quality of casual sex. The downside is the chances of actually getting a boyfriend are tiny.' — Graham Norton to the Dallas Voice.
'As I age, new roles emerge, along with passions I never knew I possessed and sex objects I wouldn't have noticed in my youth. There's only so far these changes can be explored in the context of monogamy, at least that's what we've concluded. And so Tony and I maintain the pattern we had when we met. He has tricks and I have affairs. My m.o. is riskier than his, because there's always the risk of an attachment that can't be contained. But I think risk can be a source of growth, and besides, as our wedding song proclaims: I am what I am.' — Village Voice Executive Editor Richard Goldstein, writing in the June 22 issue.
'In the eyes of party boys and lesbians who just wanna have fun, Pride Day long ago sold some major swaths of its raucous soul—to corporate interests and their ubiquitous logos; to the thousands of suburbanites who hog all the front-row spaces on the parade route; to the shadow of AIDS; to the Toronto cops, who keep making everybody put their clothes back on. But in the past year or two, and even more so this year, the slouch away from the outrageous has become a bit of a lurch, as Pride Day—or Pride, as its organizers now insist it be called—makes way for a slew of family- and community-oriented events that have elbowed their way into the week-long party.' — Toronto's Globe and Mail daily newspaper, June 26.
'No labels! I don't want to box myself in with all that crap. I don't want to sell myself short. If I'm Ru, it's unlimited. There is no other Ru. I'm secure enough just being Ru. I don't define myself by my sexuality, or my religion, or my politics, or if I'm a vegetarian—none of that stuff. The truth is I have to acknowledge the fact that I'm growing and learning, and I'm here to be on this planet to experience all of the human experiences. I don't want to shut any of them out.' — Singer RuPaul to the Chicago gay magazine Identity (Windy City Times' sister publication), July issue.
