Gay Today: Quote

Quotes & Quips

Compiled By Jack Nichols

Toys R Us?

When I was young, I used to wear guns and a cowboy hat. My mother wanted to dress me up in a dress and I'd say, "No way, Mom! I wanna wear my guns!"

Anne K. Strasdauskas, Sheriff of Baltimore County—Baltimore Alternative, January

'The Hands that Help Are Better Far than Lips that Pray'

After one fellow announced that not only wasn't he homosexual anymore, but he had ''prayed away'' his AIDS, a simply dressed blonde woman, sitting in the audience, stood up to speak. Taking the microphone, the woman said, not without some sarcasm, ''As a member of the board of the American Foundation for AIDS Research, I have to offer my congratulations. You are the only known human being to be cured of AIDS. You are quite a phenomenon.'' The woman was actress Sharon Stone, who has raised millions in the battle to find a cure.

Liz Smith— tells of forthcoming taped segment of Roseanne's show wherein gays and religious fundamentalists spar. New York Post, January 14

Matt Damon's Gay-Friendly Side

Matt has used his fame to help generate support for the annual Boston AIDS Walk, which takes place in June and raises thousands of dollars for AIDS research. By saying yes, Matt made good on a promise he had made a few years ago to Larry Kessler, the executive director of the AIDS Action Committee. During a dinner Kessler had with him, Matt told Kessler that 'if there's anything I can do to help the cause, let me know.' So, Kessler took him up on his offer. Talking about gay friendly!

We are anxious to see Matt in the title role in Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella's production of The Talented Mr. Ripley. Set in the 1950s, the film is Minghella's (who directed the 1996 Oscar Best Picture, The English Patient) adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's mystery novel of the same name and is essentially a remake of the 1960 Alain Delon starrer Purple Noon. Matt will play a creepily charming psychopath opposite Gwyneth Paltrow. Matt said he finds it "fascinating." As he told Mr. Showbiz inline, "It's certainly the most unconventional in terms of movies I've done. The guy (Ripley) goes and falls in love with this man and his life—to the point where he wants to be in his skin."

John Patrick—" Matt Damon" –The Best of the Superstars 1999—The Year in Sex (STARbooks Press)

'I Don't Believe in Sex'

I don't believe in sex. I was asked by Dr. (Ruth) Westheimer to go onto her program. She introduced me saying, 'And now we have with us Mr. Crisp, who has opinions about everything. What do you think about sex?' I said, 'It's a mistake.' And she said, 'Why do you say that?' I said, 'You must remember I come from a time when we didn't know that sex was here to stay. We thought if no one mentioned it, it would go away.' And she said, 'You were wrong,' with great force but with no proof. If everyone stopped talking about sex it might go away. And wouldn't that be wonderful? You would be free. It would be marvelous. You could go into a bar and say to someone, 'Will you pass me the ashtray?' without thinking, 'Oh God, he's trying to get off with me! What will people think?'

Quentin Crisp—"America is a Very Feminine Country"—The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review, Winter

Attitude

The longer I live the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you: we are in charge of our attitudes.

S&S Express Car Rental, Inc.— A Business Philosophy

Lottsa Newtiness to Lottsa Nuttiness

Consider that it was only three years ago that Newt Gingrich made the very same attack on gays—"gays are the moral equivalents of alcoholics"—that set off the current hubbub when Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott compared gays to alcoholics and kleptomaniacs. But what a different response these identical claims received. The mainstream media didn't agree with Newt's claim but treated it with respect. It was a position worth hearing….By contrast, Lott's comments oozed into the general media when they were greeted by the equivalent of "Excuse me, what did you say?—as though an off-color or racist joke had just been told at a press conference. Even the mainstream conservative press like U.S. News and World Report has editorialized against Lott: "I don't think it helps to have public leaders engaged in that kind of dialogue."

Richard D. Mohr—"Don't Worry About the Right—Too Much"—The Letter, January

Cell Phones or Hand Cuffs?

Yikes! You used to see couples arguing in the video store aisles. Now they do it over the phone.

'They've got something here called Dangerous Beauty, a guy said into his cell phone. This fellow was standing in the crowded new releases section of a Blockbuster on Broadway. He had the video box in one hand, tiny phone in the other. 'It was directed by the Thirtysomething guy,' he added…

So there he was, receiving instruction by cell phone from the mean-ass girlfriend or wife who was sitting back home in their overheated apartment, ruling his life even now, when he should have been proudly cutting a swath through his own domain.

Samantha Davis—"A Cell Phone Guy at the Video Store"—The New York Observer, January 11

Jerry Falwell's Blinking Problem

I was watching Jerry Falwell on C-Span tonight. He was blinking uncontrollably while he talked. Blinking, I tell you, like a mad thing. First I wondered if the pious parson was on drugs until I remembered a study somewhere that says that incessant blinking is common among people who are less than truthful. Blink blink blink. Twenty-five times in one sentence, I tell you. If that study was right, Jerry Falwell's the busiest blinkity blink liar alive.

Randolfe Wicker—in a telephone call to GayToday

Oh Bartender!

The queer community, unlike so much of America, is largely pleasure-positive, but we don't seem to have figured out the difference between recreation and compulsion. Drug treatment experts estimate that addiction to drugs or alcohol affects one quarter to one-third of lesbians and gay men. Mental health professionals attribute substance abuse among gay people to homophobia and our fear, self-hatred, shame and misdirected anger. And that's part of it: bad days, thwarted goals, unrequited love, fractured family bonds…Oh bartender!

Pat Califa— "The Queers and the Junkies" OUT 100--January

Designated Scapegoats

What is the right's modern obsession with homosexuality? Why do organizations like the Family Research Council spend fortunes on ads aspiring to "heal" gay people who are not sick?…Some of this obsession may be due to fear and bigotry. Some of it is take-no-prisoners culture war: Gay people are among the designated scapegoats for all that the right hates about the 60s in general and Bill Clinton in particular. And possibly some of it is pathological. From Roy Cohn to the Jesse Helms political consultant Arthur Finkelstein, some vitriolic right-wing exploiters of homophobia have turned out to be gay themselves.

Frank Rich—"Family Values Stalkers"—The New York Times, January 13