‘That term sex addict really makes me laugh. Did I have abundant sex, oh yes… my God yes, undeniably so. But being gay allows us to experience an abundance of sexuality…. I find that we should celebrate that difference in our lives from that of heterosexuals, I think we are different people—that’s a very good thing. I don’t like what I call heterosexual imitation, because our lives are very, very rich and I don’t want to see that gone. As far as sexual addiction, I would just call it bountiful sex.’ — Author John Rechy to the Palm Springs gay magazine The Bottom Line, Feb. 16.
‘I’ll try anything once and if I like it I’ll go back! Even at my age, I still consider myself sexual, but I don’t consider myself bisexual or homosexual or heterosexual. I think that those are trapping words. They paint sex as some sort of philosophical thing. We spend more time going to the john than having sex—I would hate to be identified by how I go to the john!’ — Poet Rod McKuen to the Palm Springs gay magazine The Bottom Line, Feb. 16.
‘We don’t know how many citizens… have this unusual sexual orientation, but the gay clubs are free to carry out their sexual activity. What we say is that we are against propagating, we are against promoting. Like any other society, we want to protect ourselves from the promotion of alcohol and tobacco. When we promote smoking, it’s bad, it’s wrong. [T] hrough the gay parade you promote some uncertain people and it becomes an invitation to acquire this quality of the sexual minorities. [It is saying that] this is OK, that’s normal, this is useful. Our view is that it is wrong and unusual. Let the gay people do what they do, but they shouldn’t involve other citizens of our country…. I am not going to allow the gay parade.’ — Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov during a press conference in London with the pro-gay mayor of London and the openly gay mayors of Berlin and Paris, Feb. 28. The four had just finished their annual summit, which also was attended this year by the mayor of Beijing.
‘I don’t see the gay press serving any important political or cultural function for the community anymore…. The Internet is much more effective because it is there all the time. The gay press can’t compete in terms of news value. It used to be that the gay press was essential, that you couldn’t find this information anywhere else.’ — Larry Gross, director of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication, to the gay press newsletter Press Pass Q, Feb. 27.
‘ [It’s] a corporation designed to milk the gay market for money to hire more fundraisers and marketers to milk more gay pockets. It’s a racket with a plush new multi-million dollar headquarters and salaries that would make corporate America blush. Have they actually done anything for gay rights? After a couple of decades observing them, my own view is: nada…. They get tens of millions of dollars a year from well-intentioned gay men and lesbians. They’ve been doing it for years. And what have we got? Nothing. Wake up, guys. Give your money to people who actually fight for gay equality.’ — Writer Andrew Sullivan on the Human Rights Campaign, on his blog, March 7.
‘Yuri! You do not become homosexual, there is no risk of propaganda. This is not a disease you catch at some point. It is somehow part of our identity. Some of us have brown skin, some of us have fair skin, some of us have brown eyes, some of us have blue eyes. We are born heterosexual or homosexual. And that’s it.’ — Openly gay Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë to Mayor Luzhkov at the same press conference.
—Assistance: Bill Kelley