Pictured Mo Gaffney and and Kathy Najimy in The Advocate. Their Afterbirth: Kathy & Mo’s Greatest Hits, is in NY off-Broadway starting June 11, Second Stage Theatre.
‘You know, we’re both so soft-edged straight. neither of us define ourselves as heterosexual.’ — Kathy Najimy to The Advocate. She and her performing partner Mo Gaffney are re-staging their famous and much-loved Kathy & Mo work in New York.
‘I think [the press] would like us to define ourselves as something. Are you straight or gay. ‘Yeah.” — Gaffney.
‘WHAT WE should all do, whether we’re gay or straight or have no idea what we are, is just make a world where that shame doesn’t need to exist. Being gay is a fact of life. That’s all it is. It’s no better, no worse, no anything from anything else. It’s just a fact, and it’s hard for people to deal with that.’ — Gaffney to The Advocate.
‘We’re not a city in which any of the gay bars have windows.’ — Jeff Howells, editor of the Pittsburgh gay newspaper Out, to the Associated Press in a story about how Pittsburgh is not like Queer As Folk’s Pittsburgh, May 16.
‘He would sicken me actually—and bore me, really.’ — Queer As Folk actor Randy Harrison (Justin)on what it would be like to date a man like his TV lover Brian, to Miami’s The Weekly News, April 15.
‘I’ve signed Tampaxes a girl ripped out of her vagina once. I’ve signed colostomy bags. Just this week I’ve signed asses, dicks, tits.’ — Gay filmmaker John Waters to Boston’s Bay Windows, April 29.
‘I’ve met Chelsea Clinton—at a gay club in London called Heaven. I saw her dancing around, and actually, we traded numbers. I was going to invite her to Taboo in London, but she never answered my calls. So, she’s a bitch.’ — Boy George to the Dallas Voice.
‘It’s not something I would want to do. I think it’s more an attempt to assimilate. I don’t know why we have to marry in order to get equality. To me it is a human-rights issue. I believe people should be able to bless their relationships any way they choose. This idea that if we can just achieve marital rights then we’re gonna be free is a delusion. Because I can assure you right now, we will never be like straight people!’ — Boy George to the Houston Voice.
‘I have seen it [Queer Eye for the Straight Guy]. I don’t think I got it. I like the way straight people dress…. That’s why they’re cute! We don’t want everyone to look like a namby-pamby poofter!’ — Boy George.
‘Please remove from mailing list immediately.’ — President Bush’s AIDS czar, Dr. Tom Coburn, in a fax to Poz magazine after it celebrated its 10th anniversary this month with a cover photo of 80 nude HIV-positive people.
‘Jesus Christ. I mean, give me a break! I mean what is the big thing here? I mean, is this going to be Sodom and Gomorrah? Jesus Christ. Half the marriages end up in divorce right now. Half the… people who are beating the hell out of their wives are good heterosexual married people. I mean give me a break!’ — Chicago Ald. Richard Mell, whose daughter Deborah is gay, on gay marriage, to the Chicago Tribune, April 28. Another of Mell’s daughters is married to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who opposes same-sex marriage.
‘I’d like to slap the bastards [parents who reject gay children]. I’d like to give ’em a slap. Pleeese. Come on! If your child comes to you and tells you this and you really have a problem with it and it becomes a real issue, you really don’t deserve to call yourself a parent…. One of the reasons I think I’m becoming more vocal on this issue [gay marriage] is because I’m thinking anytime that Deborah and I are together it puts a face to this. That some kids who are out there, maybe struggling [will see] here’s the alderman’s daughter, the governor’s sister-in-law and look at the relation they have.’ — Chicago Ald. Richard Mell.
‘The Bush administration repeatedly uses gay rights as a political tool to divide the nation. That’s just wrong. We don’t need a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. We need civil unions with full and equal rights. We don’t need opposition to hate crime legislation. We need to reject hate and embrace tolerance. And we don’t need a president who plays politics with gay adoption. We need a president who works every day to protect and support all children and families.’ — Presidential candidate John Kerry to PlanetOut.com, April 30.
‘One photo shows a naked Iraqi man kneeling in front of another naked Iraqi man, who is standing over him with a bag over his head, while another shows a female American soldier pointing as an Iraqi man with a bag over his head is masturbating. Another photo shows an American soldier sitting on top of a naked Iraqi man, who is straining to look up, and still more photos show naked Iraqi men in a human pyramid.’ — The New York Times reporting May 3 on ‘an internal Army investigation [of] a prison outside Baghdad where American enlisted personnel are accused of committing acts of abuse and humiliation against Iraqi detainees.’
‘Specialist Matthew Carl Wisdom, of the 372nd Military Police Company at Abu Ghraib, appeared in the hearing and described some of the acts of abuse he saw. ‘I went down to Tier 1… and when I looked down the corridor, I saw two naked detainees, one masturbating to another kneeling with its mouth open,’ he is quoted as saying. ‘I thought I should just get out of there. I didn’t think it was right, as it seemed like the wrong thing to do. I saw Staff Sergeant Frederick walking towards me, and he said, ‘Look what these animals do when you leave them alone for two seconds.”’ — The New York Times reporting May 3 on ‘an internal Army investigation [of] a prison outside Baghdad where American enlisted personnel are accused of committing acts of abuse and humiliation against Iraqi detainees.’