'Welcome to Pink, one of the most popular programs on GAY-TV, Italy's 24-hour satellite channel. 'I want to show that gay people are not UFOs,' Pink host Fabio Canino says during a taping break. 'I hate the word normal, but that's the only way to explain it.' Pink is just one in a lineup of gay-oriented (but not gay-exclusive) shows on the network, which is owned by Dutch-financed company XAT Production and has been featuring normal gay folk for more than a year. ... It's an increasingly popular formula on both sides of the Atlantic. The runaway hit of American television is Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. ... Starting this week, Queer Eye will air in the U.K., and a British version of the show is set to launch early next year. And in January, France will see the debut of Pink TV, another gay-themed cable and satellite channel.' — Time magazine Nov. 10.
'Of course, gay themes aren't restricted to gay networks. Mainstream TV's attitude toward gays started growing up in 1997, when American comic Ellen DeGeneres came out of the closet in her self-titled sitcom. ... From Ellen, it was a quick jump to gay/ straight sitcom Will & Grace and finally Queer Eye, with gay men replacing black people as TV's favorite subculture: the oppressed minority, once kept on the fringe, is now center screen defining the new cool.' — Time.
'You don't get more with honey than vinegar. The [HIV] infection rates are again rising. There should be ACT UPs beyond belief.' — Veteran gay activist and author Larry Kramer speaking at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor Oct. 7 as quoted by the Michigan gay newspaper Between The Lines, Oct. 16.
'If the [Bush] administration and their allies want to make a campaign issue out of amending the Constitution [to ban gay marriage], we will not only stand against it, but we will point out that they'd rather talk about taking away rights and undermining the ability of Americans to live their own lives, to have their own families, than to talk about the miserable economy, to talk about their miserable foreign policy, to talk about their rollback of environmental laws and workers' rights, education and health care.' — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., addressing the Empire State Pride Agenda's annual dinner. Oct. 9.
'I can't hardly believe it [my status as a gay icon]. I've always loved the gay community. I think they're the most talented people that have ever lived. I think they're some of the kindest people that I've ever met, and I care about them deeply. I'm very honored that they would choose to care about me, too, because we've really agreed to disagree on the gay issue. They know my feelings on the gay issue [homosexual sex].' — Former televangelist Tammy Faye Messner (Bakker) to the San Diego Gay & Lesbian Times, Oct. 23. Her new memoir is called I Will Survive.
'I do think he's [George W. Bush] beatable. Because the public is finally waking up to what's been going on since day one, since he issued his first executive-privilege gag order. This is a government that is not operating openly and honestly and truthfully. And as Martin Luther King said, 'Truth crushed to the earth will rise again.'' — Barbra Streisand to The Advocate, Oct. 18.
'We are not terribly impressed with the Human Rights Campaign's selection of Massachusetts state Senator Cheryl Jacques to be the organization's next executive director. Jacques, a Democrat who has held elective office in the Bay State for more than a decade, in our opinion, had fumbled questions during her first conference call with gay press reporters. That she has been out for only three years is cause for concern, though one that HRC's governing board was apparently willing to overlook. ... The other matter Jacques fumbled relates to her salary: she refused to reveal it. ... As an elected official, Jacques has had to abide by various financial disclosure laws for years; reporting her salary shouldn't be a big deal to her. We know it is in the six-figure range—HRC after all, has a budget of more than $20 million.' — The Bay Area Reporter in San Francisco, Nov. 6.
'The way [HRC] presented its new leader to the gay press ... left much to be desired. A telephone press conference introducing Jacques opened with a curt statement that the group hoped to move things along as quickly as possible. Much of the rest of the session reinforced the sense that a press briefing was something the group had little time or patience for ... . Jacques was asked about the failure of the latest draft of the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) to include protections based on gender identity and expression. While voicing a strong commitment to the transgender community, HRC's new leader ruled out any effort to amend the legislation's language.' — Gay City News in New York.
'The [Catholic] church [now] has gone beyond its doctrinal opposition to emotional or sexual relationships between gay men and lesbians to an outspoken and increasingly shrill campaign against them. Gay relationships were described by the Vatican earlier this year as 'evil.' Gay couples who bring up children were described as committing the equivalent of 'violence' against their own offspring. ... For the first time in my own life, I find myself unable to go to Mass.' — Gay Catholic journalist Andrew Sullivan writing in The New York Times, Oct. 19.
'The current pope ... will send emissaries to terrorists, he will meet with a man who tried to assassinate him. But he has not and will not meet with openly gay Catholics. They are, to him, beneath dialogue. His message is unmistakable. Gay people are the last of the untouchables. We can exist in the church only by silence, by bearing false witness to who we are.' —
Sullivan.
Photo #1 Barbra Streisand #2 Hillary Clinton. Photo by Tracy Baim
