"No one knew about it until today. That's the way Sean wants it. He is giving absolutely no interviews on this. He just turned down Jay Leno and The Tonight Show. ... This was not about publicity. This was simply Sean being a good Samaritan. Period.'' ... Will & Grace star Sean Hayes' publicist Michelle Bega, on the actor's stopping to help a shot man. Hayes reportedly tore off his shirt and pressed it against a bullet wound to stop the man's bleeding.
"From dem a par inna chi chi man car/ Blaze de fire mek we bun them!! ( Bun dem!! ) / From de a drink inna chi chi man bar/ Blaze de fire mek we dun dem!! ( Dun dem!! ) " ... From the song, "Chi Chi Man" by Jamaica's top-selling band, TOK [ Touch of Klass ] . The London Independent reports that the song was named as the No. 1 reggae dancehall song in Britain by Radio 1's specialist reggae DJ. The song "appears to advocate chasing down gays and burning them alive," the paper said. "Chi chi" originally referred to vermin in Jamaica but grew to encompass corrupt people. It is widely acknowledged, however, that "chi chi man" is slang on the island for a gay. In Jamaica, homosexual acts are punishable by 10 years' hard labor, and in the last decade at least 38 gays have been killed because of their sexuality. Members of TOK said in an interview that "chi chi" in their songs refers to all corrupt people. But they admit they see homosexuality as a form of corruption, the Independent reported.
"I WAS always trying to figure out whether she was a man or not." ... Raquel Welch on Mae West, according to Vanity Fair.
"Same-sex partners in each of Tennessee's 95 counties reported living together as couples, according to Census data ... . Tennessee had 10,189 same-sex households, representing about one of every 10 homes where unmarried partners lived together. The same-sex households were split almost evenly between females and males. The numbers largely tracked the state's population. The most same-sex households...1,821...were reported in Shelby County, home of the state's largest city, Memphis, followed by Nashville's Davidson County ( 1,659 ) , Knox ( 857 ) and Hamilton ( 589 ) counties." ... The Daily News Journal of Murfeesboro, Tenn.
"At some point along the way, if you're a first-timer at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, you will find yourself shaking your head...hard...snapping it back and forth, back and forth, as you think, Whoa. Too much. Not as in too much of a good thing, necessarily, or too much of a bad thing, either. But too much, as in major sensory overload from this giddy concoction of music, community and politics, a week-long outdoor paean to all things female." ... Teresa Wiltz, Washington Post Staff Writer, in an Aug. 16 story.
"Here, safe is a mantra. Safe from violence. Safe from outsiders. Safe from judgments. Safety is essential, of course, but there's no way to protect the newcomer from feeling overwhelmed. Because at first it is indeed a lot to take in, 650 acres of too much: The sharp kick to the nose zinging off the 259 'port-a-janes' in triple-digit heat, the nude mud wrestlers, the tractor-driving bearded ladies, the S&M chicks, the earth mamas, the baby-faced riot grrrls flirting, the naked giggling toddlers, the primal screams ricocheting through the trees, the order and chaos that come only from 5,600 womyn...women with a 'y'...jamming, fists raised, bodies pumping, to the rhythm of their own drums." ... Wiltz.
"The typical parody of the festival is the granola-eating, Birkenstock-wearing, politically correct lesbian feminist. That's just a weird stereotype. Once you've been around 26 years, and you make decisions based on your politics, that makes you seemingly square. But we make decisions based on how people should take care of each other." ... Festival organizer Lisa Vogel to the Post.
"IN THE solemn police funeral for Tampa, Fla., officer Lois M. Morero, who was gunned down July 6 while pursuing a suspect in an armed robbery, Police Chief Bennie R. Holder took the folded American flag from the coffin and gently handed it to Mickie Mashburn, Marrero's lesbian partner of 10 years." ... Advocate story, Aug. 28.
"I HAVE a little crush on Britney [ Spears ] . I think she's pretty cute. I mean, there's just something so appealing about her. The whole outfit and the hair and the dancing. It's just the entire package." ... Legally Blonde star Reese Witherspoon in Cosmopolitan's July issue, according to The Advocate.
"HOMOSEXUALITY has been with man since day one. ... And the fact that it's being accepted more and explored more is the greatest thing that could happen to our society." ... Screen legend Pam Grier to Curve magazine. She again plays a lesbian, opposite Clea DuVall, in John Carpenter's thriller Ghosts of Mars. Curve says the film is set in a future "where women have little use for men, aside from breeding purposes."
" [ IT WAS ] the worst, most awful event in my life." ... Ellen DeGeneres on her breakup with Anne Heche, to Curve magazine, October 2001 issue. Ellen stars in a new CBS sitcom this fall, and she hosts the Emmy Awards in September.
"FOR ME it meant ... that I'm not the only one out there. Especially if I'm a kid in Kansas or someplace and I feel like I'm the only kid in school who's gay, it's really good to know that there are a lot of other people who are feeling the same way that I am." ... DeGeneres, on seeing her first on-screen lesbian kiss, in Personal Best, in 1982.
"LESBIANISM is matter-of-fact [ in the new Ellen show ] . She's there to make people laugh, not make a point." ... GLAAD's Scott Seomin to curve.
