"Ellen [ DeGeneres ] and I are very good friends, and yes, we definitely commiserated." ... Rocker Melissa Etheridge to Atlanta's Etcetera magazine, Aug. 3. Both women's lesbian lovers left them after deciding they preferred men.
"The institution of marriage has not collapsed. None of the dire predictions have come true. There was a big rhubarb, a lot of fear-mongering, and now people realize there was nothing to be afraid of." ... Vermont Gov. Howard Dean on the one-year anniversary of Vermont's civil unions "gay marriage" law, to The New York Times, July 31. Vermont officials have conducted 2,479 civil-union ceremonies, 502 among Vermonters and 1,977 among out-of-staters. Twice as many women as men have tied the knot.
"Most of my dates were on the gay side." ... Actress Debbie Reynolds on the rising young actors the studio arranged for her to be seen with following her success in Singing In The Rain, to the Associated Press, Aug. 1.
"GLAAD is steadfast in its belief that this film is dangerous, and Kevin is steadfast in believing it's a satire. The audience is not going to be separating satire from acceptable behavior when they're bombarded with constant 'fag jokes.'" ... Scott Seomin of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation in reference to director Kevin Smith's new movie Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, to E! Online, Aug. 2.
"So far in Vermont there have been almost twice as many lesbian civil unions as gay male ones...even though most surveys show that gay men outnumber lesbians about two to one. That means lesbians are up to four times more likely to get married than gay men." ... Andrew Sullivan writing in The New Republic, Aug. 13.
"Gay men...not because they're gay but because they are men in an all-male subculture...are almost certainly more sexually active with more partners than most straight men. ( Straight men would be far more promiscuous, I think, if they could get away with it the way gay guys can. ) Many gay men value this sexual freedom more than the stresses and strains of monogamous marriage ( and I don't blame them ) ." ... Andrew Sullivan writing in The New Republic, Aug. 13.
"Being gay or lesbian...a 'chi-chi' man/gyal or a 'battyman'...is the ultimate sin in Jamaica, an island paradise so steeped in religion that it holds the Guinness Book of World Records title of having the most churches per square mile and where it is still legal to arrest two men caught having sex." ... The Miami Herald, Aug. 6.
"We can't advertise the location of our office, we can't openly mourn the murders of gay men and women that have been happening on the island, because there is a very real possibility that we will be killed." ... Lester Wishart ( a pseudonym ) , a spokesman for the Jamaican Forum of Lesbians All-sexuals and Gays, to the Miami Herald, Aug. 6.
"Among a sizable group of gays, she is scorned as the latest in a new breed of gay intellectual opportunists, who are said to pander to latent homophobia in the mainstream media, selling out the movement that paved the way for their success. The more successful she is...she is now a regular on the opinion pages of The Los Angeles Times...the angrier her opponents become." ... From a New York Times profile of syndicated columnist Norah Vincent, Aug. 6.
"Norah is not a contrarian gay journalist. She represents a large number of gay men and women who simply don't buy the outdated leftism of most of the gay press and most of gay activism. It is the gay press that's contrarian...publishing writers whose work would be interesting if it were still 1976 but who have nothing new to say." ... Writer Andrew Sullivan on syndicated lesbian columnist Norah Vincent, to The New York Times, Aug. 6.
"I certainly think that Andrew's popularity, especially on the talk-show circuit, has a lot to do with his own self hatred, which makes him an especially attractive kind of homosexual to a certain kind of talk-show host. Which is the reason that his prominence is so infuriating to the rest of the community." ... Author Charles Kaiser on writer Andrew Sullivan, to The New York Times, Aug. 6.
"I'm not going to charge people criminally for what they thought was a consensual act between adults. We do not send female officers into sports bars to come on to guys to see which ones respond and then arrest them. We should not be sending undercover decoys into homosexual-act areas to do exactly the same thing." ... Wayne County, Michigan, Public Prosecutor Michael Duggan, Aug. 6.
"I've gotten a gazillion emails [ since coming out publicly July 28 ] and it has blown me away. There has not been one punitive remark. It renders me almost speechless. But I wanted to make this statement. It was something I felt compelled to do, and everybody in the band has been so supportive. Now I can walk shoulder to shoulder in Boys Town in Chicago and say 'I'm openly gay like everyone else.' I feel like I've finally come home." ... Styx bass player Chuck Panozzo to Montreal's Hour, Aug. 9.
"As soon as you start calling people role models, they start being careful about what they say, and what they do. It's just not me. I'm more interested in being able to say what I think." ... Dyke comic/actress/singer Lea DeLaria to Los Angeles' Lesbian News, August issue.
"The whole world wants you to pair up with one person, but I haven't been able to bring myself to do that. I'm non-monogamous by nature and by habit." ... Lesbian comic/actress/singer Lea DeLaria to Los Angeles' Lesbian News, August issue.
"It's a cosmic joke that I'm a lesbian because I understand men so completely and women are a total mystery to me. ... Women are the most confusing, annoying people in the world." ... Lea DeLaria.
"A lot of male readers are looking for specific sexual content that's hard for me to understand, so I overcompensate for being female by running more gay male content than may be necessary." ... Eleanor Brown, editor of the Toronto gay newspaper Xtra!, to the gay-press newsletter Press Pass Q, Aug. 13.
"Friends, no. We're co-parents and definitely meet and agree and can participate on a level of parenting for our children. We live back-to-back. Our houses [ share a yard ] , so the kids have this sense of home in one space. So we meet there, [ but ] I wouldn't say we have a happy friendship." ... Rocker Melissa Etheridge on Julie Cypher, who recently broke up with her after 12 years, announcing that she was no longer gay, to Atlanta's Etcetera magazine, Aug. 3.
"POZ [ magazine ] sought to ask [ White House Office of National AIDS Policy Director Scott ] Evertz himself about his views, but after many requests for an interview, the White House press office refused, saying Evertz wouldn't be doing any media 'for at least a couple of months'...the Bushies are no doubt keeping him under wraps until they can drum the party line into his head." ... POZ magazine, August issue.
