<><><12><><>
"I think that most people know that I've been a gay man all of my life, and that it's only been in recent times that it's an issue that I feel comfortable to address, and an issue that has been with me ever since recognizing my own sexuality. It's something that I've been comfortable with forever ... and this is the moment to discuss it and to go into the reasons, and the whys and the wherefores as to the statement, the so-called coming out phase."
--Rob Halford, former lead singer of the heavy-metal band Judas Priest, to MTV News.
<><><13><><>
"The directions are remarkably similar everywhere in the world. Follow the path to the end of the beach, park, promenade, pier, mall, tracks, tunnel. Cross, climb, duck under, hop over, go around, or through the boulders, trees, wall, hedges, dunes or caves. You've left behind the gated resorts, tour busses, families, children, world. Coast on your instincts and scope out the action."
--Writer Reed Hearne on gay playgrounds in the Boston gay publication The Guide, February issue.
<><><14><><>
"Lesbians and gays say that their inability to marry legally has serious repercussions for partners and children because they are cut out of health insurance provided by employers, decisions on medical treatment or hospital visits and social security benefits. They do not have inheritance rights when a partner dies and can lose custody of children from those relationships because they are not recognized by law."
--From Reuters coverage of the first National Freedom to Marry Day, Feb. 12.
<><><15><><>
"These kind of raids are normal in Russia. We'll keep fighting for this club because it's a rare place in Moscow where gays can get together in a safe space. You can talk about a democratic revolution, but this kind of incident shows a reversion to the situation there was in the 1930s. In front of everyone, they were planting evidence, they were beating people up. It was fascist aggression."
--Pavel Chaplin, owner of the Moscow gay club Chance, on the venue's latest police raid, to the Sydney Morning Herald, Feb. 14.
<><><16><><>
"The repeal of a Maine law prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians in housing, employment and public accommodations is a disheartening step backward for a state that prides itself on tolerance. The surprise outcome shows that broad but complacent support for gay rights is no match for a grass-roots campaign that plays to anti-gay feelings and the public's general reluctance to politicize sexual matters. The repeal effort was led by the Christian Civic League of Maine, a local group known also for crusades against pornography and shopping on Sunday, with help from national groups such as the Christian Coalition. ... If Maine's electorate can flip on gay rights, anti-bias laws in other places could also be in jeopardy. Civil rights advocates can avoid more defeats by drawing some lessons from the Maine experience. First, money and television ads will not draw moderates to the polls unless they believe that someone's rights are endangered. Second, there can be no letup in the political struggle against discrimination, even when the legislature passes a law."
--Editorial in The New York Times, Feb. 16.
<><><17><><>
"The willingness to extend fundamental rights to all citizens is a cornerstone of the American system. Where cases of discrimination are shown, guarantees need to be spelled out. These are not 'special rights' but the basic rights of all people to find a job, buy a house or get a bank loan without fear of bias. The Christian Coalition and other ultra-conservative groups ought to be fighting against intolerance, not promoting it. The next bit of freedom taken away could be their own. Christian Coalition leaders certainly wouldn't condone the branding of religious toleration as a 'special right.' Nor should they. People of good will across the country are wise to heed the lesson of the Maine vote: A dedicated cadre of grass-roots volunteers can fool some of the people some of the time, especially when it is aided by provocative misinterpretations ('special rights') and overconfidence by the other side. Citizens beware. The rights we preserve someday soon may be our own."
--Editorial in the San Francisco Examiner Feb. 18 after voters in Maine overturned the state's gay equal-rights law.
<><><18><><>
"Gay people cannot take their rights for granted. Even when they have secured them, there are referendums, legal challenges and crackpot legislators who can reopen the debate. Eventually, the debate is dominated by the people who hate and the people who are hated. Those in the middle, who tolerate and even accept gay people, lose interest and do not raise their voices. Others, who are tolerant toward other minorities, can't find it in their hearts to extend that acceptance to gays. The volatile mix of public apathy, anti-gay fanaticism and the ballot box make gay people a group for whom vigilance is a daily fact of life."
--Editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Feb. 13 after voters in Maine overturned the state's gay equal-rights law.
<><><19><><>
"I've been seeing somebody for almost a year and it's the best thing in my life. His name is Richie Arpino. He's a hair stylist. He owns a hair salon in Atlanta. We met at an HRC dinner in Atlanta in May. ... We commute."
--Actor Mitchell Anderson (TV's "Party of Five") to the Texas Triangle, Feb. 12.
<><><20><><>
"I've always done what they told me not to do. They told me to get a nose job. They told me not to cut my hair. They told me not to date Steve Martin. Someone is always telling me not to do, or to do, certain things. The ironic thing is that I've always been rewarded by simply doing what I felt was right. ... Gay people should have the right, the potential, to be whatever they can be. With so much hate in the world, I'm not really interested in people who say love is wrong."
--Actress Anne Heche, actress Ellen DeGeneres' lover, to The Chicago Tribune, Feb. 5.
<><><21><><>
"People kept saying that I was going to lose my career. Not one person, with the exception of Ellen and her mother, said to me, 'Don't worry about that. You're in love.' We have been taught to live a lie in order to stay out of trouble. Between a career and the love of my life, the choice is not a difficult one. I didn't even have to think twice."
--Actress Anne Heche, actress Ellen DeGeneres' lover, to The Chicago Tribune, Feb. 5.
<><><22><><>
"The vast majority of gay people have always resented the fact that being gay requires some kind of political commitment or some identification with the cause. And they've always felt that this is an unequal burden that straight people don't have."
--Michael Warner, co-founder of Sex Panic! and a prominent figure in the field of queer studies, to North Carolina's The Front Page, Jan. 30.
<><><23><><>
"Queer theory is about the way in which sexuality has all kinds of shames and power relations and forms of repression and distortion that affect a whole range of people. And that they can never be cleaned up or tidied up in a way that will satisfy the moralists."
--Michael Warner, co-founder of Sex Panic! and a prominent figure in the field of queer studies, to North Carolina's The Front Page, Jan. 30.
<><><24><><>
"If you have a swimmer's build, rollerblade, or workout x times a week...Keep lookin', boy!"
--Found in the profile of a self-described 'bear' on America Online, Feb 9.
Rex Wockner's "Quote Unquote" is archived from mid-1994 onward at http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/world/wockner.html
