"Eminem is certainly, I think, the most extreme example of rock lyrics used to demean women, advocate violence against women, violence against gay people. Elton John has been good in the past about speaking out on issues of equality for gay people, on issues of being against violent language against gay people. I am quite amazed and dismayed that he would choose to perform with Eminem [ at the Grammys ] ." -; Lynne Cheney, wife of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, to the Cable News Network, Feb. 20.
"For all its offensive content, [ The ] Marshall Mathers [ LP ] arguably deserves its [ Grammy ] nominations for its brilliant freestyle rhymes and innovative, if stomach-churning, narratives. More important, Marshall Mathers isn't just an exercise in technical skill and inflammatory rhetoric: Running beneath its acerbic surface is a poignant vulnerability seldom heard in hard-core rap." -; San Francisco Chronicle Pop Music Critic Neva Chonin, Feb. 20.
"A darkly violent album, 'Marshall Mathers' sparked controversy because of songs that appeared to glorify wife-killing, violence against gay people, incest, forced sodomy and random murder. On the other hand, Eminem also pointed his finger at former President Bill Clinton's sexual peccadilloes, violent movies, lax gun control, parental irresponsibility and censorship." -; Reuters, Feb. 22.
"I don't know what all the controversy is about, quite frankly. I've met Eminem. I met him backstage. And he's really gay. About the gayest guy you'd ever meet." -; Grammy Awards host Jon Stewart during the ceremony.
"I was very impressed by Eminem's poise accepting that [ Best Rap Album ] award. I really think that this experience is going to help him grow as a person. As a matter of fact, after doing the duet with Elton John, I've heard that he's agreed to go to the bathroom with George Michael as well." &-; Grammy Awards host Stewart.
"Eminem's music in his 'Marshall Mathers' album can be seen as an attack on gays when taken out of context—as it frequently has been by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. He talks about killing gays and lesbians, but the character in the album is one disturbed dude who talks about attacking virtually everyone. But Eminem does not present these actions as a recommended code of behavior." -; Los Angeles Times Pop Music Critic Robert Hilburn, Feb. 22.
"Eminem is in the tradition of such revolutionary, cutting-edge pop predecessors as Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones and the Doors, and adults shouldn't look at youngsters who like the music as monsters or deviants. The music is funny and fictional and powerful." -; Los Angeles Times Pop Music Critic Robert Hilburn, Feb. 22.
"It's vicious, bad, old, bashing bigotry." -; National Organization for Women President Patricia Ireland at the small Eminem protest outside the Grammy Awards.
"I want to thank everybody who could look past the controversy or whatever and see the album for what it was and also for what it isn't." -; Eminem accepting the Best Rap Album Grammy award.
"Of course I'd heard of Elton John. I didn't know he was gay. I didn't know anything about his personal life. I didn't really care; but you know being that he was gay and he had my back, I think it made a statement in itself saying that he understood where I was coming from. ... If I didn't make a statement with Elton John tonight I don't know what else to do." -; Eminem to MTV after the Grammys.
"Bought it [ Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP ] months ago. Listened to it a zillion times. Great talent, terrific music, a real poet. But a phobe nonetheless, with a lot of problems. I don't know why both sides of this brouhaha won't each admit these two simple facts. He's not the first gifted artist to harbor some ugly biases. Doesn't mean he should be silenced. But it doesn't mean he should be excused and unchallenged either." -; Gay journalist Michelangelo Signorile in a Feb. 23 e-mail to this column.
"Will & Grace has received a lot of unwarranted praise as a 'breakthrough' in programing, despite its relentless stereotyping ( this season the sitcom has become-;whisper the word-;boring! ) ... and Showtime's Queer as Folk is a luridly entertaining soap opera for and about homosexuals. It is a buffed and heightened reality for a select audience. So, where can more or less realistic portrayals of gay folk be found on TV? Believe it or not, MTV's Undressed is the place. This late-night, half-hour show ... is really not much more than an excuse for the attractive actors, male and female, to strip down to their undies. But—surprise!— gay characters are presented in a totally matter-of-fact manner. Their relationships, dating, traumas are all given the same emphasis as the straight couplings. The sanguine attitudes are remarkable and refreshing. And, on both sides of sexual orientation, this little series addresses some real issues, albeit discussed in bras and boxer shorts. ... Gay organizations and publications that expend so much time honoring the now-tired Will & Grace ought to take a look at Undressed to see what real progress is." -;Syndicated columnist Liz Smith, Feb. 20.
"At first, I was wondering if I would upset anybody because I don't actually have a penis. But then I decided if they were going to hire any woman, it should be me, because I know so many trannies that I felt like I could do the role with a certain amount of dignity." -;Actress Lisa Edelstein who plays the male-to-female transsexual on Ally McBeal, to Out magazine, March issue.
"I've got gaydar. You get hit on by a few guys, you can start to tell by a look. It's been ... different!" -; Actor Kerr Smith who plays a gay character on TV's Dawson's Creek, to Out magazine, March issue.
"I was doing the press line [ at the 1999 GLAAD Awards in Los Angeles ] and Whoopi Goldberg was in front of me doing her thing. She was doing an interview, and she turned around, walked up to me, and said, 'I really love what you're doing. Keep it up.' And she walked away. I almost fainted." -; Kerr Smith.
"There's been a hue and a cry that many of us have an inalienable right to intimacy, which for some of us means exchanging semen. No one would dispute that sex without latex can be much, much more intimate. But how intimate do you need to be, with whom, and when? Does it mean the same to you to not wear condoms with your lover as with the guy you met last Thursday whose name and HIV status you didn't know, or the guy you'll trick with tonight? Or with five, ten, or twenty more guys this year? Isn't taking care of each other also part of intimacy? Gay liberation was about the freedom to have sex, to break rules, to have no limits. And we can have most of that. We don't have to be prudish—we just need to be prudent." -; San Francisco AIDS activist Dan Wohlfeiler writing at GayHealth.com, Feb. 16.
"I've always been drawn to genuine blue-collar guys, not the guys who wear brand-new construction boots and meticulously rolled t-shirt sleeves. I get weak when I see beer bellies, three-day stubble and greasy cap brims. I can't explain it. I grew up around guys like that, so many of my first crushes were on mechanics and farmers. My reaction to such men is visceral and potent. It's somewhere between 'Be my sweet cowboy' and 'Make me your bitch.'" -; Syndicated columnist Kirk Read, Feb. 22.
"I think it's [ Will & Grace ] hysterical. It makes me laugh so hard, I can't breathe. I think it's a lot to ask of a show to carry the entire weight of the gay movement. No way." -; Lesbian comedian Kate Clinton to The Advocate, Feb. 27.
"I met [ former NGLTF head ] Urvashi [ Vaid ] in '88. We really helped each other. She's very serious, and now she laughs more. I was very funny, but now I have more content." -; Lesbian comedian Kate Clinton on her lover, to The Advocate, Feb. 27.
