'... ONE OF those right-wing talk-show hosts said, 'Well, what did they expect?' My answer was: Not that! Didn't expect death threats! Didn't expect to have 24-hour security outside of my house! Violence doesn't cross my mind when I don't like what someone said. So, proud to say I didn't expect that. Don't feel naive for not expecting that.' — Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, during a candid interview the group did with Entertainment Weekly after Maines' anti-Bush and anti-war comments caused boycotts and death threats. The trio is in Chicago the end of May.
'I HOPE people don't look at [this cover on Entertainment Weekly] and go, 'Oh, isn't that nice. They're trying to get more attention.' Trust me—we never wanted this much attention.' — Maines.
'TOP 10 staple Will & Grace can lure any guest star it wants. (Welcome aboard, Madonna!) So why can't it find Will a boyfriend?' — Entertainment Weekly feature article May 2.
'I hadn't really thought about it, quite honestly. I suppose I'll choose to think that it's more than me bum that they're after. I'd like to believe that they're connecting to whatever emotions or ideas come across in my songs. But then again, it's probably me bum.' — Singer Robbie Williams to The Advocate, May 13, 2003, when asked why he thinks gay men are so attracted to him.
'I quite fancy the Rock, actually. I'd love for him to throw me around a bit. (When asked by the reporter if he was kidding Williams responded:) Not at all. He's quite brutish and hot, don't you think? I should be careful about saying more. He might find me and kick my ass.' — Williams.
'Everyone has the things that they find interesting about someone else. The subject of sexuality doesn't scare me. I find it funny. I find it entertaining. I think every straight man has the capacity to have sex with another man. Don't you agree?' — Williams.
'Not yet. It's certainly a possibility at some point in my life. I don't think too hard about it. If I meet a man I fancy enough to have sex with, I will.' — Williams, asked if he has been 'gotten' yet by a man.
'No. If they did, I'd tell them to fuck off. Besides, there's nothing to tone down. This is who I am. Should I try to act more 'straight'? How does one do that? Should I pose with guns or women? No, I'm sorry. I don't play that game.' — Williams when asked if the record label has asked him to tone down the gay sexual innuendos.
'It seemed like every women's football team did their best to alienate themselves from [lesbian fans] because they were afraid. I wasn't going to do that.' — Lisa Cole, founder of the Chicago Force Independent Women's Football League, about their partnership with main team sponsor Temptations, a Chicago-area lesbian bar, in The Advocate, May 13.
' ... AN INSTITUTION where 'gay' is the all-purpose put-down, where those even suspected of being homosexual are subjected to taunts and threats ... .' — Chicago Tribune Magazine May 4 cover story on gay and lesbian teens, and what they continue to put up with in high school. Several area teens were featured in big photos, including Mike Piazza, a Naperville North senior, on the cover; Luz Duarte, 16, a sophomore at West Leyden High School; and Jo Nelson, 16, a senior at Illinois Math and Science Academy (and recent GLSEN Chicago Scholarship winner).
'I have no problem with homosexuality —I have a problem with homosexual acts. ... If that's their orientation, then I accept that. ... The question is, do you act upon those orientations? So it's not the person, it's the person's actions. ... The basic liberal philosophy is materialistic, is relativistic, to the point of, you've got candidates for president saying we should condone different types of marriage. That is, to me, the death knell of the American family.' — U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., as quoted by the Associated Press, April 22.
'... I will look back on the Rick Santorum controversy as the cormorant of its species. It took an enormous amount of energy to achieve a modest liftoff, and then it flopped unceremoniously back into the political ocean. ... [his comments] brought outrage from usual and unusual suspects. The Log Cabin Republicans—the masochistic wing of the gay movement—protested that he was tarnishing homosexuals. Owen Allred, the leader of a breakaway Mormon sect, protested that he was tarnishing polygamists. Meanwhile, the White House kept its lips zipped except to say that the senator—often described as the original compassionate conservative—was 'an inclusive man.' ... [M]any wondered why nostalgia for segregation had taken down the number one Republican senator, Trent Lott, while gay trashing had left the number three Republican unharmed. But, all in all, this was less of a flap about homosexuality than about theocracy.' — Syndicated Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman.
'Now fast-forward to the list of people who have been nominated to the theocracy, excuse me, the judiciary. Among those who are dubbed relatively moderate is Bill Pryor ... nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. Pryor not only worked with [Pat] Robertson to defend student-led prayer in school, he also defended a judge who displayed the Ten Commandments in his courthouse. At a public rally he said, 'God has chosen, through his son Jesus Christ, this time and this place for all Christians ... to save our country and save our courts.' The same Pryor wrote an amicus brief in the Texas sodomy case that might have been dictated by Santorum, except for Pryor's belief that protecting homosexuals would also protect necrophiliacs. The Taliban or the Suburban? The Republican Party has patched together a coalition of those who want to keep the government out of your pocket and those who want to put the government in your bedroom.' — Goodman.
'No wonder, though, that liberal Democrats, moderate Republicans, and other non-hard-right types are increasingly nostalgic for the likes of Ronald Reagan (who delivered a forceful but unfortunately not fatal blow to Republican homophobia when he opposed a referendum that would have barred homosexuals from teaching in California's public schools) and Barry Goldwater (whose suspicion of Big Government did not include an opt-out provision for bedrooms). Those were the good old days, even if we didn't know it at the time.' — New Yorker columnist Hendrik Hertzberg.
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