'The guys smelled so bad.' — Recently booted 'Survivor' lesbian Ami Cusack to People magazine online, Dec. 3. Scout, the other lesbian, made it to third place Sunday night. Ami and Scout were the only two who voted for the woman finalist ( Twila ) to win; a man ( Chris Daugherty ) ultimately won the $1 million.
'I put on about 20 pounds before the show because I figured about 20 pounds could last me 20 days. If I couldn't find something to eat before 20 days were through, then that would be a problem. When I left the show, I had lost about 20 pounds. So it balanced out.' — 'Survivor' lesbian Ami Cusack to People magazine online.
'He was not lied to. Look, we take great issue with that and we're drafting a response.' — 20/20 anchor Elizabeth Vargas to The New York Observer responding to allegations by Laramie Police Chief Dave O'Malley, who said he was lied to by Vargas about the nature of her story on the Matthew Shepard murder. He told a newspaper in Laramie that after Vargas and the ABC News crew departed, he discovered e-mails they'd left behind describing 'their preconceived focus that this was not a hate crime. This was a drug crime. That's what they went with.'
'My executive producer was gay. David Sloan, my executive producer, is quite active within the gay community. He's won GLAAD awards in the past.' — Vargas, defending her Shepard piece to the Observer.
'Irresponsible, biased, shameful, and destructive.' — The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs in response to a Nov. 26 ABC-TV 20/20 report which suggested the murder of Matthew Shepard had to do with 'money and drugs' and was not a hate crime.
'Dennis and I [ are ] dismayed and saddened by the tabloid nature of the show, its lack of serious reporting of facts in evidence, and the amateurish nature of asking leading questions to the people who were interviewed. ... 20/20 has not presented a 'new' theory. ... 20/20 has sacrificed years of professional journalistic ethics and values for a stab at revisionist history ... and ratings.' — Judy Shepard in response to a Nov. 26 ABC-TV 20/20 report on her son, Matthew Shepard.
'I didn't enjoy kissing the men any more than I am sure a gay guy would enjoy licking a woman's pussy. I find it repulsive when a guy's stubble is pressed against my lip.' —Alexander star Colin Farrell to the San Diego gay magazine Buzz, Nov. 25.
'Being with a guy in any way sexual is not for me. However, Oliver Stone was 100 percent correct in ... portraying Alexander as he was—a bisexual ruler of the world. [ B ] ack then ... if a man loved another man, he had no problem showing his love for that person in a sexual way.' — Colin Farrell.
'I have no problem showing my cock. ... I did go naked in A Home At the End of the World but they cut it out. During test audience screenings, they were advised it was too distracting. I don't know, I see my cock every day and am not distracted.' — Colin Farrell to Buzz.
'I hope we all realize that, as of November 2nd, gay rights are officially dead. And that from here on we are going to be led even closer to the guillotine. ... Almost 60 million people whom we live and work with every day think we are immoral. 'Moral values' was at the top of many lists of why people supported George Bush. Not Iraq. Not the economy. Not terrorism. 'Moral values.' In case you need a translation, that means us.' — Veteran gay activist and author Larry Kramer speaking at New York City's Cooper Union, Nov. 7.
'From the very first moment we were told in 1981 that the suspected cause [ of AIDS ] was a virus, gay men have refused to accept our responsibility for choosing not to listen, and, starting in 1984, when we were told it definitely was a virus, this behavior turned murderous. ... I wish we could understand and take some responsibility for the fact that for some 30 years we have been murdering each other with great facility and that down deep inside of us, we knew what we were doing.' — Kramer.
'LGBT rights played a factor in the 2004 election, but not the overriding factor. In battleground states, President Bush's strategist Karl Rove advanced a plethora of wedge issues like a thousand points of fright.' — Activist Steven Goldstein writing in New York City's Gay City News, Nov. 25.
'They've got to apologize to God because they break God's law. Why must I apologize to corruption? How can I do that? I sing 'fire burn for homosexuals' and sometime in some street I walk, I see them and me no touch them. If I don't like what you're doing I don't come there, if you don't like what I'm doing or what I say you don't come where I'm at.' — Jamaican dancehall-music star Sizzla refusing to apologize for lyrics such as 'fire fi di man dem weh go ride man behind,' which means 'burn the man who rides a man from behind,' in a Nov. 25 interview with the BBC's 1Xtra station.
'For more than six months, same-sex couples in Massachusetts have been getting married, and nobody else's marriage has been affected. Massachusetts continues to have the nation's lowest divorce rate.' — Lambda Legal Marriage Project Director David Buckel in a Nov. 29 press release.
'No matter what these faux-Christian groups do, no matter how hard they oppress and protest and clamp down, this is a road that leads, despite all dour headlines and sour prognostications otherwise, toward spiritual illumination, toward awareness, toward sexual openness and same-sex marriage and revelatory sodomy and free vibrators for teenage girls and lesbians kissing open mouthed in the streets. In Kentucky. In the daytime. On Sunday.' — Columnist Mark Morford, SFGate.com, Dec. 1.
'The country is right this minute being led, morally speaking, by a cadre of sexually barren males and prim humorless vaginally denuded women who have about as much sex appeal and libidinous acumen and raw divine awareness as a beige 1993 Dodge Caravan. This much we know. But here's the fabulous news: the pendulum, it always swings. The recoil always happens. And the further the petrified fundamentalists now squeezing the testicles of our born-again administration cram us down the bleak hole of 1950s-style sexual ignorance and misogyny and homophobia and silly whining to the FCC about bare breasts and curse words and heavily Botoxed white women daring to expose themselves to black NFL stars, the more potent and delicious the backlash will be.' — Columnist Mark Morford, SFGate.com, Dec. 1.
'I frankly felt like the reception we received on the way in from the airport was very warm and hospitable, and I want to thank the Canadian people who came out to wave—with all five fingers—for their hospitality.' — George W. Bush in Ottawa, Ontario, Nov. 30. Gay groups were well-represented among thousands of protesters, visible to Bush, many of whom may not have used all five fingers.
