"I was in the shower [at the Beverly Hills Gym in 1982], butt-naked and soaped up from head to toe [when John Travolta walked in and introduced himself.] I asked him if he was looking for the manager. 'No,' he said, 'I'm looking for you.' ... Out at his ranch, he had a whole collection of my videos and magazines, just the straight stuff. ... We went to dinner together publicly once in a while but mostly we stayed at his ranch or at my place. It was understood that the whole basis of our relationship was strictly the sex."

--Porn actor and director Paul Barresi to Boston's The Guide, March issue. Barresi said he and Travolta had a falling out in 1990, after which Barresi sold his story of the relationship to The National Enquirer for $100,000.

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"Yes, I'm pregnant. I couldn't be happier. But no, I'm not going to discuss the father, the method or anything of that nature."

--Actress Jodie Foster, long rumored to be gay, to syndicated columnist Liz Smith, March 5.

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"As far as coming out, I never really did that exactly; I just went along with the time. I never pulled an Ellen in announcing 'I'm gay!' At every opening night, I just quietly brought a boyfriend on my arm."

--Veteran theater composer/songwriter Jerry Herman to Art & Understanding, February issue.

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"I love it. It is the celebration of the flesh, something that is not done in northern Europe. Tolerance is the mark of any evolved society."

--U2 star Bono at Sydney's Mardi Gras parade, Feb. 28, according to the Sydney Sunday Telegraph.

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"Talk show queen Rosie O'Donnell has found true love with Nickelodeon TV executive Kelli Carpenter - and they've even exchanged rings to show their deep commitment to each other."

--The National Enquirer, March 10.

"In the '50s and '60s, gay men seemed to despise one another. The idea of hanging out with another gay man was just not something you did."

--Author Edmund White to Atlanta's Etcetera magazine, March 6.

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"The Bible makes us bigoted."

--Iowa anti-gay activist Bill Horn, as quoted in the Des Moines Register, March 12.

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"It is like waiting for the other shoe to drop. At some point in the near future, in the next few weeks or days, the Hawaii Supreme Court is almost surely going to rule that the state must recognize same-sex marriages. The effect is going to be remarkable. For one thing, conservative religious and political groups are going to go absolutely berserk. You cannot imagine how much you are going to hear about how the United States has turned into Sodom, how Satan has seized control of the country, how that makes the second coming of Christ imminent, and how all this proves that the world is going to end at the turn of the Millennium."

--Syndicated gay columnist Paul Varnell, in a March 6 filing.

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"When a butch walks into a room I always cruise a butch, I always will look at a butch. I'll look at what a butch is wearing, I'll look at her hair, I'll wink at her because there's an identification, there's a solidarity there, there's an angst there. It makes me really proud to see another butch on the street being herself."

--Singer Phranc to Los Angeles' Lesbian News, March issue.

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"I do not consider myself to be a lesbian-separatist anymore, but all of my issues around politics get triggered by sexuality, transgender, all of those issues. I was taught by my own community to be kind of a lesbian bigot -- by my own community! I can't say that I've entirely let go of all my old ideas -- I was very proud of that very fierce focus -- bigotry, I would have to say. But I really don't think that it serves me or my community to generate more criticism, opinions and discontent among my sister and brother queers."

--Singer Phranc to Los Angeles' Lesbian News, March issue.

"It is one of the ironies of history that today the mainstream of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender movement focuses more on bolstering traditional, patriarchal institutions such as marriage, family, and monogamy than it does on questioning their legitimacy. That this shift has taken place is undeniable: We are a people eagerly seeking the right to marry; clamoring to adopt, parent, and procreate; and engaging again in a spirited debate about sexual values and ethics. ... I want a movement willing to fight the patriarchy, not rehabilitate it. ... The old patriarchal family does not work; it is permeated with violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and unhappiness."

--NGLTF's Urvashi Vaid writing in the March 17 Advocate.

"I think fairly quickly, and I can be fairly well-spoken on short notice. I don't have, on the other hand, a lot of discipline. I was originally going to be a political scientist -- I was studying for a Ph.D. I would not have been good at that because my attention span is not what it ought to be. This is a job where you have to deal with twelve things in a day. I'm able to switch gears and focus very quickly -- better than a lot of other people. I'm not as good as other people at longer-term concentration."

--Gay U.S. Rep., Barney Frank, D-Mass., when asked by Milwaukee's Q-Voice magazine, "What are you good at?" The interview appeared in the March issue.

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"We've got Esquire and GQ licked on the only real measure of masculinity in the 90's -- how many bucks a guy pulls down. ... Our readers are likely to be at the gym when readers of Esquire and GQ are opening that third bag of Cheese Doodles and searching for the TV remote."

--Out magazine President Henry Scott as quoted by the Entertainment Wire, March 12. Out readers have a household income of $77,100 compared to GQ's $50,482 and Esquire's $47,094.

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"I would much rather have the children of the United States know about oral sex than listen to Oral Roberts."

--Gay author Gore Vidal on KQED-San Francisco's "Forum" program, March 11.

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"Tonight, in 'It's a Gay, Gay, Gay World,' DeGeneres and her writers take [their] 'Afterschool Special' approach to its excruciatingly logical conclusion, as they teach Spence (Jeremy Piven) just how tough it would be for 'heteros' like him if having sexual feelings for members of the opposite sex were an aberration, rather than the norm. Miss DeGeneres? Miss DeGeneres? Can I be excused? My mommy says you already covered this material at the end of last year's class. I've passed the test, I've taken the pledge, I've agreed that I'll never ever look down on another human being because their sexual orientation isn't the same as my own. Could we please move on now?"

--Philadelphia Daily News TV columnist Ellen Gray, Feb. 25.

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"['Ellen'] is so gay it's excluding a large part of our society. A lot of the stuff on it is somewhat of an inside joke. It's one thing to have a gay lead character, but it's another when every episode deals with pretty specific gay issues. ... The show is not too gay for me. But we have to be realistic. This is network primetime. When a show treats gay issues over and over again, it becomes 'a gay show,' and the average viewer says, 'Hey, I'm not gay -- I'm not going to watch it.'"

--Gay activist Chastity Bono to Variety, March 9.

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"Recently, remarks by GLAAD's Entertainment Media Director, Chastity Bono, regarding the sitcom 'Ellen' were taken out of context to suggest that she felt the program was 'too gay-tuning in, she responded with a number of theories that are currently being discussed in the media, including that some viewers might feel the show deals too heavily with gay storylines. What the article fails to mention is that Ms. Bono and GLAAD strongly believe that the program contains themes that transcend issues of sexual orientation, and are entertaining and appealing to audiences gay and straight."

--GLAAD, March 9.

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"In Variety's coverage of GLAAD's efforts to save Ellen from rumored cancellation, the publication presented GLAAD entertainment media director Chastity Bono's comments out of context. Bono's objective speculation about the program's status was erroneously presented as the opinion of the organization. 'Since the moment I learned Ellen's character might come out, I recognized the extraordinary opportunity to use my position and GLAAD's resources to support her and the program,' said Bono. 'To suggest that I feel her work has been anything but groundbreaking for the lesbian and gay community is just not true--and to misrepresent my views and ignore the work I've done in support of Ellen for the past 18 months is an outrage.'"

--GLAAD, March 11.

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"Quit showing photographs of the two of us. Our faces are everywhere. We're sick of it."

--Actress Anne Heche, Ellen DeGeneres' lover, to Life magazine, March issue.

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"I'm a white, blond-haired, blue-eyed girl. Because of how I look, I have never been discriminated against. To witness discrimination within hours of people knowing I was with a woman, I've never been so insulted in my life. Told to lie, told to cheat, told to cover up, told to be quiet. I was told I was going to lose my job with Harrison Ford [in Six Days, Seven Nights]. It was horrifying. The discrimination was unbelievable."

--Actress Anne Heche, Ellen DeGeneres' lover, to Life magazine, March issue.

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"I wouldn't say I would go for another woman again -- I wouldn't cheapen it by saying that. I'm never going to be with anybody else. It's the thing I know most in my life. I knew the second I met Ellen I would be with her forever. She didn't believe it. Took her three days. We haven't been apart since the day we met."

--Actress Anne Heche, Ellen DeGeneres' lover, to Life magazine, March issue.

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"[The Ellen DeGeneres/Anne Heche romance,] that's been, like, the most -- to me -- ridiculously used and publicized kind of trivia that I've seen in recent years. ... To me, it's a publicity stunt. I don't want to see that from any couple, gay, straight or otherwise. I don't want people using their relationships to further their careers. ... I personally have a little more desire for privacy and dignity than that. ... If you're so in love, then protect it. To me it's just like totally exploiting it. ... You're not gonna change anybody's fucking mind because you're in a fucking TV show and your girlfriend has been with men. Oh, suddenly it's all going to be cool. It's never going to be fucking cool. People are people. They're either tripped out or they're cool with the shit. And I think subtlety and nuance is a more interesting way of raising consciousness for me."

---Comedian Sandra Bernhard to Los Angeles' Lesbian News, February issue.

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"[New York City's Gay Men's Health Crisis] is reversing its position and calling for New York doctors to report HIV-positive people to state health departments. What good will this do to encourage testing if it means being put on some list? That's what happens in Fidel Castro's Cuba. Granted, Cuba has the lowest AIDS rate in the Western world; it also has the worst record of human rights violations outside of Syria and Iraq. Before the policy makers of GMHC take such a position, they need to take their next vacations in Havana."

--David Waggoner, publisher and editor-in-chief of Art & Understanding, in the February issue.

Rex Wockner's Quote Unquote is archived from mid-1994 onward at http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/world/wockner.htmln