"We met at a bar [ Felt ] here in Los Angeles. God, I wish we had a better story than that." ... Rocker Melissa Etheridge on meeting her new girlfriend, Tammy Lynn Michaels from TV's Popular, to the Texas Triangle, July 6.
"Anyway, I was out with a bunch of girlfriends. Popular had literally wrapped for the season...and the series, for that matter...the night before. I had been avoiding gay bars the entire time I was working so all of a sudden I was like, 'Let's go out! C'mon, girls, I don't care who sees me!' So we were sitting at this table and there she was. So up until then, I'd been living in a virtual tunnel for the past ten years. I mean, I knew who she was, but I wasn't super aware. I mean, I'm not a celebrity stalker or anything. But you know, I just thought she was cool. So my friends were egging me on to go up and talk to her. They were like, 'Ask her out! Ask her out!' I was like, 'No!' and so they started coming up with really cheesy pick-up lines for me to say to her. Now, you'd think my friends would realize that women don't go for the cheesy lines, but they kept egging me on. So I decided to show them how to pick up a woman. I mean, I really just wanted to get them off my case. So this guy...a gay boy who worked with me on Popular...offered to introduce me. He introduced us and I was like, 'I'd like to take you out to dinner.' And she was like, 'Okay!'" ... Actress Tammy Lynn Michaels from TV's Popular on meeting her new girlfriend, rocker Melissa Etheridge, to mightybigtv.com, July 14.
"If one has to sum it [ my breakup with Julie Cypher ] up, you could say, 'OK, she's just not gay.' I believe it's much, much more than that. She also fell out of love with me, personally. And a lot of that was my career and my path and our personalities and what we both need. And I grew. She did too. But we grew apart. In my family, divorce is failure. But I know now that ultimately it was me taking care of myself, doing the best for myself and it's not a failure." ... Etheridge to L.A.'s Lesbian News, July issue.
"It is intentional on my part to keep my lyrics non-gender-specific. Even when I came out, I didn't want to narrow my music. I love it when women and men, whether they are gay or whatever, can relate to the basic emotion because we all have the same emotion. That's been important to me." ... Etheridge to the Reuters wire service, July 10.
"I cannot believe we have this redneck, good-old-boy, illiterate doofus as leader of the free world. When we have someone like Gore who is smart and motivated and caring and compassionate? I cannot believe it." ... Tammy Lynn Michael of TV's Popular to mightybigtv.com, July 14.
"We need to elect a lot of liberal Democrats! Work real hard to elect them to Congress in 2002! AIDS needs to be up there with or above every human concern the government deals with, which certainly isn't going to happen with the piddling amount of money Bush assigned to it!" ... Bisexual syndicated gossip columnist Liz Smith to the AIDS magazine A&U, July.
"Let's face it, lesbians and gay men have as much in common as bananas and melons. We only share the attraction for the same sex and the persecution that comes with this attraction. We have no common ground other than that we are outcast to society." ... Columnist Paulo Murillo writing in Los Angeles' Fab!, July 20.
"The great thing about Eminem is he's so interested in homosexuality. 'Stan' is a gay love song. We've actually written a song for our next album called 'The Night I Fell in Love' that's written from the point of view of an 18-year-old boy who goes to an Eminem concert and meets him backstage and ends up going to bed with him." ... Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys to Atlanta's Etcetera magazine, July 6.
"Who isn't sick of seeing some movie about twentysomething white kids in a gay ghetto? Enough of that." ... Thomas Bezucha, director of the gay-themed film Big Eden, to the New York Blade News, July 13.
"Today, [ outgoing National Organization for Women President Patricia ] Ireland says her [ heterosexual ] marriage is still strong, but the D.C.-based [ gay ] relationship is over. It ended approximately three to four years ago, though the two women are still friends and share joint custody of two cats. They meet once a week or so to hand off the felines. The other woman is now in another relationship, Ireland says, and is living with and raising a child with her new partner. " ... Washington Post, July 19.
"I thought about having kids. I grew up assuming I'd have kids. It was a very conscious decision not to have them. I decided that I couldn't do what I wanted to do with my career and have children. Maybe it's because of the way I was raised...very 1950s, with my mother at home...but I couldn't see how you could do all that and have kids. And to be honest, I still don't." ... Outgoing NOW President Patricia Ireland to the Washington Post, July 19.
"Then I hit another second serve, huge. And that ball was on the line, was not even close. And that guy, he looks like a faggot little bit, you know. This hair all over him. He call it. I couldn't believe he did it." ... Wimbledon Men's champion Goran Ivanisevic during a post-game press conference, July 9.
"Gay men are fabulous dancers who smell nice, dress well and, let's be honest, have far nicer bodies than any heterosexual man you'll ever meet. And, currently, they are the accessory for single, urban women." ... Laura Marcus writing in London's The Observer, July 22.
" [ George ] Bush sees gay issues as political dynamite to be avoided whenever possible." ... Columnist Deb Price, Detroit News, July 23.
"We are caught in political purgatory [ under the Bush administration. ] They are committed to not moving backward or forward." ... Human Rights Campaign Executive Director Elizabeth Birch to the Detroit News, July 23.
"The Bush administration appeared to back away from the Salvation Army back-room deal, but [ his faith-based initiative ] would put the exact same thing in law. It would gut 20 years of hard-won gains by our community. Our community and our allies can't afford to let ourselves be lulled by Bush's kinder and gentler homophobia. Republican extremists have gotten much better with their rhetoric, but not with their discriminatory goals." ... National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Lorri Jean to the Detroit News, July 23.
