'I'm just having a higher level of sex [now that I'm a celebrity]. I'm just having sex with a better grade of person—trailer trash only from the best parks.' — Actor, comedy writer and Hollywood Squares player Bruce Vilanch to San Diego's Buzz Mag July 8.
'The Bush administration has hampered U.S. [AIDS] efforts with policies crafted to appease its political constituencies, putting ideology before science.' — Presidential candidate John Kerry in a statement marking the opening of the XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, July 12.
'I will work with Congress to lift the immigration ban on HIV-positive people that has prohibited the United States from hosting this lifesaving meeting.' — Kerry at the XV International AIDS Conference.
'A little denial, a little dysfunction and a little self-delusion are the secret ingredients of all successful long-term relationships.' — Syndicated gay advice columnist Dan Savage, PlanetOut.com, July 17.
'If they don't have the guts to come up here in front of you and say, 'I don't want to represent you, I want to represent those special interests, the unions, the trial lawyers' ... if they don't have the guts, I call them girlie men.' — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger criticizing Democratic lawmakers for allegedly delaying California's budget, in an address to a crowd in Ontario, Calif., July 18.
'The leading political organizations in our [gay] community have chosen to politely downplay the Democrats' attacks on our equal marriage rights, all while using the marriage issue in fundraising letters to swell their treasuries. Can you imagine the NAACP endorsing a candidate who opposed legal equality for African-Americans? Can you imagine NOW endorsing a candidate who opposed legal equality for women?' — Chicagoan Andy Thayer of DontAmend.com in a July 19 press release. The organization picketed a Democratic National Convention delegates' reception hosted by gay groups in Boston July 26. John Kerry favors amending the Massachusetts constitution—but not the U.S. Constitution—to ban same-sex marriage.
'Crystal meth is to gay sex what the Pope is to Catholicism: your personal intercessor to the transcendent. Even guys to whom it has laid waste often tell you there is nothing that compares to sex on crystal. Thanks to its peculiar psychopharmacology, guys on crank go at it harder, longer, and with a lot more buddies. And they often go at it without condoms—with sero-discordant partners, at a rate nearly three times that of men who don't use, according to a recent ... study—undermining HIV transmission prevention efforts and fueling, in part, the resurgence of an epidemic we once had under control. Of the men who test positive for HIV at the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, half say crystal meth was a contributing factor in their seroconversion.' — Columnist Andrew Miller in New York City's Gay City News, July 8.
'Their struggle is a human rights issue to me. I have suffered myself from racism and sexism all my life. I know what it feels like to be an outsider. I understand what position gays have been put in. Many of my friends were and are gay. Many people I tune into turn out to be gay, so on a spiritual level, I'm in love with all my gay friends.' — Yoko Ono to the L.A. gay paper Fab!, July 16.
'The 'activists' at the Human Rights Campaign apparently consider it their sworn duty to protect closeted Hill staffers who work for anti-gay members of Congress, but it is the antithesis of journalism to hide such hypocrisy when the facts can be clearly ascertained. It is not the job of the gay press —and ought not be the job of HRC—to protect the identity of semi-closeted congressional aides who have important questions to answer about why they have not acted to protect their fellow gay citizens.' — Washington Blade Executive Editor Chris Crain commenting on the grassroots campaign to out high-level congressional staffers who socialize in the gay community but are not out at work—in cases where they work for a congressmember who supports amending the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, in a July 2 editorial.
'[Contrary to George W. Bush's statement,] it is simply a fact that marriage is 'an evolving paradigm.' For the first millennium after Christ, Christianity didn't even recognize marriage as a sacrament. It was regarded as a purely secular matter of property ownership. Marriage also once meant the ownership of women by men. It was once permanent, and no divorce was possible. It was once restricted to couples of the same race. The notion that it has never changed is simply untrue. The only relevant question is whether the current change [opening marriage to same-sex couples] is a good one. The president doesn't answer that question. He simply asserts it, based on nothing but bad history and ignorance.' — Gay writer Andrew Sullivan, a former Bush supporter, writing at CBSNews.com, July 13.
'[I am] deeply disappointed. ... Activist judges and local officials in some parts of the country are not letting up in their efforts to redefine marriage for the rest of America and neither should defenders of traditional marriage flag in their efforts. It is important for our country to continue the debate on this important issue, and I urge the House of Representatives to pass this amendment.' — President George W. Bush after the U.S. Senate failed to pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning same-sex marriage, July 14.
'My lashes are fluttering toward Kerry; not because he's such a prize but because we must trim the Bush.' — Singer RuPaul to Britain's Gay Times, July issue.