"The couple that caused the most swiveled heads [ at the Golden Globe awards ] was Lucy Liu and Anne Heche, who giggled and cooed and held hands as they walked the red carpet." — Jeannette Walls' The Scoop column at msnbc.com, Jan. 23.
"Something interesting can happen when you hook up with an unfamiliar guy. You can be anyone to him, and he to you, and when the setting's right the sweat and spunk and twisting limbs forge a brief but tender bond between you. That's why my acts of nonlove sex have, at their best, been far more affectionate and just plain fun than the joyless, mechanical groping and grinding depicted in cable's new gay fuck-fest, Queer as Folk." — Dave Tuller writing at Salon.com, Jan. 10.
"Stuart grins when he's fucking; you know he's having a good time. Brian looks grim and angry. Stuart has a heart; Brian is soulless. Stuart flirts with an attractive medical worker in the hospital; Brian fucks an attractive medical worker in the room where his friend is lying in a coma. Watching Stuart have sex, I want to join in. Watching Brian have sex, I want to scrub myself off with Lysol. If I'm going to watch sex, anonymous or otherwise, I'd like it to feature at least some minimal sense of delight at the touch of another human being. Otherwise I could just jerk off to On Golden Blond or Guess Who's Coming at Dinner or whatever this week's porno hit is called." — Dave Tuller comparing the protagonist of the British Queer As Folk ( Stuart ) with the protagonist of the American version ( Brian ) , Salon.com .
"I guess I don't relate in those terms. First of all, I related as a woman and a feminist long before I related as a gay person. I didn't relate to the gay movement in that way, I related more to the women's movement because I felt it was more a woman's issue in general. I thought that we were still separated from the male community in so many ways. And, then, I just didn't, I just don't, I just don't see it that way. I have a hard time seeing it that way. I think it's—anybody who's so didactic about anything, I have a hard time seeing." — Actress and comedian Lily Tomlin on the New York City cable-TV program Gay USA, Nov. 30.
"I read once that one in seven people is gay. I paid attention to that because we have seven children. So chances are one of them is going to be gay, or is gay and doesn't know it yet." — Kate Capshaw, Mrs. Steven Spielberg, to New York Newsday, Jan. 11. Capshaw plays a lesbian, and kisses Elle Macpherson, in Showtime's A Girl Thing.
"The sad reality is that not many queens get the guy in the end and I can see why. ... I am a gay man attracted to men. Why on earth would I want to lay with a nelly fag when I can lay with a woman ( hell-o ) ? With this said, why on earth would I expect to attract a guy if I behave like a lisping, limp-wrist, eternal flamer? Have you ever had a real female make the moves on you ( I'm talking tits and twat ) ? That's how I feel when a queen is on my shit trying to be seductive like Madonna. Can we say, 'dickcurl?'" — Columnist Paulo Murillo in the Los Angeles gay newspaper Fab!
"Have you ever met a guy that ... overdid it in the butch department? There is no bigger turnoff than some repressed tortured fag giving the word 'dude' some serious overkill and going on about drinking 'brewskies' with his 'buddies.' These macho homos denounce anything gay. 'That's too faggy,' they grunt like cavemen while peering through a baseball cap and scratching their nuts. Give me a fucking break! They bend over and take it up the ass like the rest of us." — Murillo.
"My partner and I—a busy doctor and a middle-aged music critic who do not exactly travel in the fast lane of New York gay life—may not be representative. But so far we have found the show [ Showtime's Queer As Folk ] a huge disappointment, with its retro depiction of gay cruising and its obsessions with youth, abs and drugs. A breakthrough? It seems more a setback." — Anthony Tommasini writing in The New York Times, Jan. 14.
"Conceivably [ I would appoint an openly gay person to a top administration post ] , if they could do the job, but that is not the reason to do so. I would pick people on their ability to do the job. Secondly, Frank, I believe that someone's sexual orientation is their private business. I mean, I view someone's private lifestyle as exactly that, private. So I don't—I try to judge a person based upon their heart and soul and conscience and talent, when it comes to picking people to fill an administration. That's how I think about things. So I don't really have a category on, you know, in my own mind about, 'Oh now, please explain to me your sexual orientation. Let's talk about your sex life." I'm not interested in that." — George W. Bush to The New York Times, Jan. 14.
"They [ legendary actors Cary Grant and Randolph Scott ] denied a romantic relationship, of course. But that's not surprising, considering that back when Grant and Scott were living together, being gay was about as much of a career booster as being a Communist. Besides, Grant's public image was that of a lady-killer, and Scott also played romantic movie roles. ... We'll never know the pressures they endured while keeping their secret in intolerant times. And we'll never know the joy they shared through the years. But this much we do know: Grant and Scott shared a house or apartment together for a decade—including before and after Grant's 1934 marriage to Virginia Cherrill; they posed for publicity shots, happily playing with the dog at the breakfast table and bare-chested on a diving board, only inches apart; their comfy companionship had '30s gossip columnists all atwitter, with one suggesting they were 'carrying the buddy business a bit too far.'" — eonline.com, Jan. 14, in a list of Hollywood's top 12 love affairs.
"The critic's tape I received was more explicit than the show that actually aired ( thanks to a rating system much harder on gay films than on comparable straight stuff ) . Still, there's enough of the old in/out to keep this pervert's pecker up. Itching to see the fabled rimming scene in its entirety? Stay tuned for the deluxe video edition. For sex addicts who just can't wait, word is that those unexpurgated critics' tapes are being auctioned on eBay." — Richard Goldstein writing about Showtime's Queer As Folk in the Village Voice, Jan. 17.
"Our relationships used to break down rather neatly along the lines laid out by Edmund White in his classic travel book States of Desire: Travels in Gay America. Sex was performed with strangers, romance occurred in brief affairs, and love was reserved for friends. Those divisions, however, feel increasingly out-of-date." — Out magazine editor Brendan Lemon, February issue.
"As horrible as I find the U.S. Supreme Court and as nefarious as I find the Bush family, I find myself optimistic. To see on television, perhaps only on C-SPAN, a coalition of labor groups, African-American groups, gay groups, environmental groups, women's groups, coming together is good. The coalition-building that we've been talking about over the years has happened." — Lesbian comedian Kate Clinton to the Long Beach [ California ] Press-Telegram, Jan. 19.
