Gay Today: Quote

Quotes & Quips

Compiled By Jack Nichols

Ellen Hosts the 53rd Annual Emmys

What would bother the Taliban more than seeing a gay woman in a suit surrounded by Jews?

Ellen DeGeneres-"Subdued Patriotism Replaces Glitter as Television Finally Presents Its Emmys"-New York Times, November 5

Walt Whitman's Empathy with a Fireman

I am the mash'd fireman with breast broken, Trembling walls buried me in their debris, Heat and smoke I inspired, I heard the yelling shouts of my comrades, I heard the distant click of their picks and shovels, They have cleared the beams away, they tenderly lift me forth.

Walt Whitman-"Song of Myself, 33"-Leaves of Grass, 1855

Crawford, Texas Here I Come

When NBC Nightly News continues, Russia's president prepares for a trip to Texas.

NBC Nightly News, November 10

Creating Change Conference to Hear 'What God Says'

Wisconsin Christians United is going to make sure that every conference attendee hears what God says about homosexual acts and that every attendee hears the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Ralph Ovadal-Wisconsin Christians United-Press release quoted in The Culture and Family Report - November 8

Inner Growth 101

All of the various ideas that arise making us believe that we require something external to make us happy are obstructions.

Vivekananda

Onward Christian Soldiers

…in the first Crusade, when the Christian soldiers took Jerusalem, they first burned a synagogue with 300 Jews in it, and proceeded to kill every woman and child who was Muslim on the Temple mound. The contemporaneous descriptions of the event describe soldiers walking on the Temple mound, a holy place to Christians, with blood running up to their knees.

President William Jefferson Clinton-Speech at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., November 7

Daddy's Mistakes Go Top Secret

Is the Bush White House trying to protect the reputations of prominent political players -- especially George H. W. Bush -- through suppression of historic data? If so, that would deny the American people a chance to hold their past public servants accountable, albeit belatedly.

Helen Thomas-"Is Bush Trying to Protect Dad?"-Seattle-Post-Intelligencer, November 8

Dramatics Duo Fool Small Town Baptists

Valerie and I were mobbed by happy Baptists…"Y'all are so dern precious!" they'd coo. Valerie and I were planning to sing 'Hey Jesus" one Sunday, which details a dumped lesbian lover's ensuing doubts in God. But we pulled back on that one, knowing that getting away with it requires a certain maintenance of subtlety.

Kirk Read-How I Learned to Snap, published by Hill Street Press, available in December

Keeping an Eye on The John

A striking example is the decision by Attorney General John Ashcroft this week to try to overrule the voters of Oregon and undo that state's assisted-suicide law. He said he would move to revoke the drug prescription license of any Oregon doctor who used drugs to help someone who wanted to die.

Anthony Lewis-"Ideology as Usual"-New York Times, November 10

Remembering the New York Native

The earliest and best AIDS coverage was not in the Brahmins of American journalism but in the 20,000 circulation New York Native. Not only was the gay bi-weekly a month and a half ahead of the mainstream press in reporting the existence of the new disease, but it also was the first news outlet in the country to tell readers what doctors suspected about how it was being spread. A tiny gay newspaper, in short, had out-reported the biggest and wealthiest journalistic voices in the country. In the process-and even more importantly - the Native had saved the lives of an untold number of gay men who read the paper.

Rodger Streitmatter, Ph.D.- Professor of Journalism, American University--Voices of Revolution: The Dissident Press in America, Columbia University Press, 2001