"I didn't understand it then, I don't understand it now." -; Singer Melissa Etheridge on her reaction to learning that longtime partner Julie Cypher was "no longer gay," as quoted by USA Today, June 15.
"I watch gay porn because the plot is better. The sex is hotter. Porn isn't really about what you want. It's a stimulant. I find sex very stimulating." -; Singer/actress/comedian Lea DeLaria to Genre magazine, June issue.
"I pray to God that people are relating to Emmett and that men who are effeminate see a champion in Emmett. I love the fact that he's effeminate and not self-loathing." -; Peter Paige who plays Emmett on Showtime's Queer As Folk, to The Advocate, June 19.
"What I think the show portrays is flawed, human, fully sexualized gay people, which is something we've never seen before on television. So hell yes, I think it's good for the community." -; Peter Paige.
"There's an AIDS mafia out there that wants to dictate what you can and can't say about the disease." -; Columnist Paulo Murillo in Los Angeles' Fab, June 22.
"I don't care if Tom [ Cruise ] is straight, gay, bi or has sex with female poodles, but I do care when he makes out that being identified as gay is libelous and akin to being called a murderer or drug addict. Tom Cruise's lawsuits are an insult to all gays and lesbians, and we should stop seeing his movies. Yes, let's boycott Tom Cruise!" -; Columnist Nicole Murray-Ramirez in San Diego's Gay & Lesbian Times, June 14.
"If there's a rainbow sticker on your car, everyone probably already knows." -; From an AOL member's personal profile, June 16.
"Sometimes I think if I could put up more of a front and be more secretive about it [ being gay ] , become a Scientologist, perhaps it would have been a little easier. But I find in general, the more honest you are with people, the more they like you." -; Singer Rufus Wainwright to Genre magazine, July issue.
"Someone I met on a sex phoneline ... came over, we had sex and it turned out he was a huge fan of mine. It was on a tour, I was very lonely. Now I have to watch myself with the lower forms of picking people up. They're starting to recognize me now." -; Wainwright.
"Tipper Gore in tears at one of my shows." -; Out rocker Melissa Etheridge on her "most bizarre fan experience" to Genre magazine, July issue.
"Anthony Romero made headlines last month when the ACLU tapped him as its first openly gay executive director. Press reports at the time indicated that he lived in New York with his longtime partner, but Romero declined to identify him. In an interview with Southern Voice, the Blade's sister paper, Romero said he respected his partner's decision 'to not bring any aspect of his personal life into his professional life.' As a practical matter, it's hard to believe that Romero's other half will be able to conceal from his co-workers that his totally out boyfriend sits at the helm of the American Civil Liberties Union, but it's even more fascinating that he intends to try." -; Washington Blade Executive Editor Chris Crain in a June 15 editorial.
"There's no room for subtlety on Gay Pride Day." -; Patrick Carney on the 200-foot pink triangle he has erected on pride day for six years atop San Francisco's Twin Peaks which hovers over the Castro district, to the San Francisco Chronicle, June 17.
"It's a wonderful example of gay-male characters written as straight women." -; Larry Gross, professor of communications at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, on HBO's Sex and the City, to The New York Times, June 17.
"In this culture it's a whole lot more frightening to be poor than to be queer. Being poor isn't pretty and it doesn't have a sense of humor." -; Author Dorothy Allison to the Village Voice, June 20.
"There has always been an authoritarian agenda in [ Michelangelo ] Signorile's outing jihads. By using activism to rehabilitate gossip, journalists like him validate the collapse of privacy." -; Richard Goldstein in a Village Voice article on Signorile's outing of HIV-positive gay writer Andrew Sullivan's alleged promiscuous barebacking lifestyle, June 20.
"Maybe you thought the award for celebrity arrogance this week should go to Barbra Streisand, who'd called upon Californians to conserve energy by line-drying their clothes -;as if La Streisand herself would be out in the yard hanging her bras and panties like the rest of us energy-deprived queens." -; Columnist Michelangelo Signorile, Gay.com, June 21.
"In New York City ... most of my friends plan a weekend getaway and flee town at Pride. It's too crowded, they complain. It's old hat. It's for out-of-towners and tourists. It isn't relevant anymore. Been there, done that." -; Syndicated gay-press columnist Mubarak Dahir, June 21.
"My best fans are gay men. Everything they do, they do well. ... They have a special talent. I'd rather spend an evening with four or five gay guys than a heterosexual group. They're always aware of what's happening. They're far more interesting than women." -; Singer Connie Francis to Boston's Bay Windows, June 7.
"Conservative gays and lesbians sometimes fear that men in leather jock straps or go-go boys in day-glo bikinis [ at the pride parade ] harm 'our' image. But except for religious zealots who dislike us anyway, spectators are probably more impressed that the men are healthy, good looking and in such good shape." -; Syndicated gay press columnist Paul Varnell, June 22.
"I met a couple nice people online, but for the most part, it was too much like playing the slot machines. Hours and hours of wasted time. An occasional jackpot. Lots of lemons. A few incredibly scary lemons. Plus, there's the whole illusion of anonymity when there is none. How do you politely tell a friend that the entire city knows him by his screen name, and also knows that he's into having highway cones shoved up his ass." -; Barney Schlockum writing at guerrillaqueerbar.com, June 22.
