‘I do believe that—regardless of how nice people are about the gay television characters—now that this ‘moral belief’ is out there that people can control your life, they’re going to make decisions about where you can teach, where you can live, how you can live. Does it open you up for folks coming up to your door and saying, ‘I know I’m not going to get in trouble for beating the fuck out of you, so here I go’?’ — Whoopi Goldberg to The Advocate, Jan. 18 issue.
‘If America doesn’t wake up, it will soon become a big, dumb second-tier nation that values miracles over math and superstition over science. Thanks to the Republicans’ embrace of anti-intellectualism and demagogic fundamentalism, we are already halfway there.’ — Gay activist and author Wayne Besen writing in the Key West, Fla., gay newspaper Celebrate, Dec. 23.
‘I’m amazed at the fact that almost all the obituaries for Susan Sontag omitted her primary, longtime relationship with Annie Leibovitz, the photographer. Of 315 articles in Nexis, only 29 mention Leibovitz, and most of them referred merely to their joint projects. Leibovitz was unmentioned as a survivor in the NYT and Washington Post. It’s striking how even allegedly liberal outlets routinely excise the homosexual dimension from many people’s lives—even from someone dead. But perhaps it is reflective of Sontag’s own notions of privacy and identity. She championed many causes in her day, but the gay civil rights movement was oddly not prominent among them.’ — Andrew Sullivan at AndrewSullivan.com, Jan. 4.
‘White House political adviser Karl Rove said after the election that President Bush intends to continue seeking a constitutional amendment that says marriage must consist of a man and a woman. At the same time, GOP congressional aides who attended a series of closed-door meetings recently said Rove did not mention the amendment when he outlined the administration’s key legislative goals for the year ahead. Nor did the issue figure prominently in strategy sessions held by GOP congressional leaders.’ — The Associated Press, Dec. 28.
‘The point is, is that Senators have made it clear that so long as DOMA [Defense of Marriage Act] is deemed constitutional, nothing will happen. I’d take that admonition seriously.’ — President Bush to the Washington Post Jan. 16, saying he will not further push a Federal Marriage Amendment bill in the Senate.
‘The White House sought on Sunday to reassure conservatives that President Bush would work hard on behalf of a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, backtracking from remarks Mr. Bush made in an interview suggesting that he would not press the Senate to vote on the amendment this year.’ — The New York Times the next day.
‘Tuesday’s passage of an amendment to state civil right’s laws that discrimination based on ‘sexual orientation’ in jobs, housing, public accommodations or credit ‘opens a Pandora’s Box for the homosexual, bisexual and transsexual agendas in Illinois,’ fretted Peter LaBarbera, Executive Director of the Illinois Family Institute. LaBarbera added that, ‘Under the guise of ‘equality,’ legislators have passed a bill that undermines the rights of anyone opposed to homosexual behavior to live out their beliefs.’ This pitiful battle cry—What about my right to discriminate?—is typical of these narrow-minded, self-styled ‘pro-family’ groups that respond with the worst sort of alarmist nonsense when presented with the idea that gay people ought to have the same rights under the law as everyone else and not be discriminated against because of who they are.’ — Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn Jan. 13.
‘Non-discrimination amendments don’t legalize same-sex marriage, require affirmative action hiring or compel employers to provide partner benefits. Experience elsewhere tells us we won’t see gay recruitment drives in our schools, notable increases in discrimination lawsuits filed by gays or the erosion of heterosexual relationships because, oh, what good are they anyway if the homos can have them, too? This amendment will be a success. Not only will it extend justice to those who are entitled to it, but the smooth transition will provide yet another smackdown for the ever shrill and increasingly marginalized gay-bashers and fearmongers.’ — Eric Zorn.
‘Duff isn’t a racial minority. And if you’ve seen him up close, all shoulders and scowl, you wouldn’t call him a woman, unless you had a running start.’ — Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass Jan. 11 on James Duff standing up in federal court and saying ‘Yes, your honor,’ about 400 times in the process of pleading guilty to 33 corruption counts.
‘ABC is a good strategy, but it has three parts to it, and we need to remind the administration of that. There are so many [HIV prevention] strategies that we know work, and we are not yet fully committed in our government to implementing those strategies.’ — Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking at the International Women’s Health Coalition. The Bush administration supports the ‘ABC’ HIV prevention model—abstinence, be faithful and use condoms—but the administration emphasizes abstinence rather than condom use, according to Reuters. Clinton also criticized the Bush administration for its decision to cut funding for international organizations that discuss or provide abortion services, saying 20 million women worldwide undergo unsafe abortions each year, 68,000 of whom die.
‘Conservative commentator Armstrong Williams is embroiled in a scandal where the Bush administration paid him $240,000 to promote No Child Left Behind. Democrat Rep. George Miller, who is on the House Education Committee, said the arrangement using taxpayer’s money was ‘probably illegal.’… As someone who has met the slippery Williams, I’m not the slightest bit surprised that he pawned his opinion to the highest bidder. A few years ago, I was on the Armstrong Williams show as a representative for the Human Rights Campaign. From the moment our eyes met, we clashed. He looked at me and scowled in disgust and I glared back at him. I immediately felt that Williams had more issues than a New York magazine stand and was a master phony that dripped with self-loathing hypocrisy. It wasn’t William’s right wing views that so rattled me. After all, I had debated many leading Neo-Puritans and actually found a few of them—such as Sean Hannity and Cal Thomas—pleasant and even courteous off the air. What unnerved me about Williams was that I felt he genuinely hated my guts because I was openly gay. This was no standard political disagreement, but a very personal one, where Williams seemed threatened by my very existence…. [It] is not entirely unexpected that a black, homophobic former protégé of the late Strom Thurmond and Clarence Thomas who is accused of fondling a man might sell his soul. No, the real crime is the Bush administration’s proliferation of propaganda in what is supposed to be a free country. ‘ — Activist and writer Wayne Besen.