Actress Laura Linney and author Armistead Maupin in Carnegie Hall this past June. Maupin narrated a threatical concert by the New York Gay Men's Chorus production of Music For Michael Mouse. Linney played a leading role in Tales of the City and visited with Maupin in his dressing room. Photo by Doug Meszler
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"Bet you don't get that in Pensacola." -- Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, commenting on the arrests of Geralyn and Pamela Graham on charges of public assistance fraud related to Rilya Wilson, the 6-year-old girl who disappeared from the women's home in Miami more than a year ago. Bush told lawmakers he had some some 'juicy details' about the women, who claim to be half-sisters, according to a Gannett News Service report. "As [Graham] was being arrested, she told her co-workers, 'Tell my wife I've been arrested.' The wife is the grandmother, and the aunt is the husband," Bush explained, reports the Orlando Sentinel. Florida Department of Law Enforcement gave the info to Bush.
"If I do come out while still at play, and that remains a possibility, it will be primarily because I would like talented young athletes to feel that they can succeed in team sports even if they are gay--or face any other kind of obstacle." -- Out magazine Editor Brendan Lemon's ex-boyfriend--the still-unnamed, well-known major-league baseball player--writing in Out magazine, October issue.
"Just like any Saturday night." -- Queer As Folk's Peter Paige (Emmett) on the game show Pyramid Sept. 17 when host Donny Osmond told him to place his arms in the straps and not give clues with his hands.
"Those ugly sandals lesbians wear." -- Paige giving a clue for "Birkenstocks."
"As President of the United States, I would recognize civil unions, which will then allow full equality under the law as far as the federal government is concerned. ... Decent Americans won't look a group in the face and say you don't deserve rights. I just don't believe that." -- Democratic Presidential candidate Howard Dean, governor ofVermont, speaking at the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association convention in Philadelphia, Sept. 15.
"As a writer I love characters who are trying to make sense of their lives, trying to live an authentic life in an increasingly inauthentic world." -- Openly gay director Alan Ball (Six Feet Under, American Beauty), quoted by the BBC, Sept. 23.
"I never would have imagined I would have lived [in the] countryside in England or been shooting pheasant." -- Madonna on her life with husband Guy Ritchie, to Genre magazine, September issue.
"I even went on a vacation with him [husband Guy Ritchie]. We went to Greece. Took a boat around Greece, jumped in the Mediterranean, I was seven months pregnant, went swimming in icy cold water, ate sea urchin raw out of the shell, had fish brains. Please. Why? Because I have a very bossy husband who goes, 'Be adventurous. Come on, just try it.' I'm like, 'Okay, okay.' ... There's a lot of pressure to be adventurous in this house." -- Madonna to Genre.
"I think the reason there's always a sign language interpreter at lesbian events has less to do with concerns for the deaf and more with showing off in public how nimble your fingers are." -- Columnist Marc Acito, Just Out, Portland, Ore., Sept. 20.
"I worry more than most people about sounding immodest, but in this case, I'm not going to let that bother me, because I feel that we created a template [with Tales Of The City] that showed a lot of Hollywood what could be done. The sort of gay-male/straight-female buddy relationship was pretty much pioneered in Tales. And the multi-generational, omnisexual cast of Six Feet Under. Even the boldness of Queer As Folk couldn't have happened without those romantic kisses between [Tales characters] Michael and John that caused the Rev. Donald Wildmon such terrible agitation." -- Author Armistead Maupin to The Onion, Sept. 18. Some Onion content, including this interview, is not made up.
"I'm secretly arrogant; I just want people to think that I'm a modest son of a bitch. It's one issue that I deal with all the time. I tend to shoot myself down publicly, and people who love me and care about me tell me to stop doing it. I think I'm finally arriving at a point in my life where I'll take credit for the things I've accomplished." -- Maupin to The Onion, Sept. 18.
"If I knew there was a gay guy on my college football team, I probably wouldn't, you know, stand for it. You know, I think, you know, they're going to be in the shower with us and stuff, so I don't think that's gonna work. That's not gonna work, you know?" -- New York Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey on Howard Stern's radio show, Sept. 10. On Sept. 26, Shockey said: "I guess I do regret saying it. I didn't think anyone was going to make a big deal out of it. I'm not prejudiced against anybody's beliefs or what they do in their off time."
"I'm happy to say that my [depression] medicine has been greatly reduced since leaving the show. I will probably need medication for a while, if not forever. ... The thing that's different is that the gray veil that surrounded me was lifted, and life was once again Technicolor." -- Rosie O'Donnell to People magazine, Sept. 26.
"Rosie plans on handling this aggressively, and will most definitely countersue." -- A spokeswoman for Rosie O'Donnell, who just wanted the magazine named for her to be closed, but now has been forced to respond with lawyers. Gruner & Jahr USA Publishing filed a lawsuit against O'Donnell and her company Lucky Charms Entertainment seeking damages of over $300 million. They are charging her with breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and breach of dealing in good faith. While the company says it was Rosie's coming out and image makeover that caused problems, O'Donnell told Bill O'Reilly of The O'Reilly Factor that when she negotiated more than two years ago for the magazine, she was upfront about her sexuality.
"I am here today because I want young people to take responsibility for themselves and turn the tide against HIV. I was too young to retire so I decided to get more young people involved in their communities in the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic and in solving their own problems." -- Bill Clinton speaking in a poor township near Johannesburg, South Africa, Sept. 28.
"What I want to say to my friends in the Republican Party is, eat your heart out. I get faxes from Barbra Streisand, they get faxes from Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson." -- U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Dick Gephardt at an L.A. Democratic fundraiser where Streisand came out of retirement and sang nine songs, Sept. 29.
"I don't particularly enjoy performing onstage but I'd do practically anything to help the Democrats win the House[of Representatives]." -- Streisand. She came under fire for not verifying quotes she erroneously attributed to Shakespeare about the buildup of war, during her Dem event.
