"A time comes when silence is betrayal."
- Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
"Well, I suppose this is as good a time as any for me to come out of the closet. I can't help the way I was born. It's just who I am. I've never announced this to a group publicly, but I guess it's about time. I am heterosexual. I am absolutely certain in my entire being that I could never be homosexual, no matter how hard I might try. I've never been attracted to another man in my life, and the idea of engaging in a homosexual act is foreign and distasteful to me. But just as I would hope that homosexual men and women could accept me for who I am, I promise to try to accept them for who they are. Why can't you do the same? Why can't we all do the same?"
- Iowa Rep. Ed Fallon, to the Iowa House 2/20/96
"Whence all this passion toward conformity anyway?--diversity is the word. Let man keep his many parts and you'll have no tyrant states"
- Ellison, 1947, p. 577
"They have to convert our agenda into something aggressive. Two guys wanting to be happy together are invading their marriages. Helping a kid who's getting beaten up in school is promoting homosexuality. If you gave me a million dollars, I wouldn't know how to promote homosexuality. Do I hire Don King?"
- U.S. Representative Barney Frank, D-Mass., on anti-gay activists, to the San Francisco Examiner, July 17, 1998
"The use of the term 'practicing homosexual' is pejorative. That is almost as bad as using the 'N' word to describe colored people. Christian groups have insulted gays so often and for so many years with such negativity that my only hope is that we don't issue an insulting statement about gays at this conference. . .It is a justice issue that is just as compelling as being opposed to apartheid in South Africa or to genocide In Rwanda."
- Newark, N.J., Episcopalian Bishop Jack Spong at the once-a-decade gathering of Anglican Bishops in Canterbury, England, July 20, 1998
"When I was growing up in Utah, my perception of gay life was that gay men were promiscuous, anti-family and that it was all about gay bars and cruising. When I finally ‘came out’ to myself, I realized there was a whole lot more to being gay than the stereotypes. I realized I didn’t have to change any of the values or beliefs that I held about families, relationships and commitments just because I was gay."
- Hero co-founder Sam Francis to the Salt Lake Tribune, Jan. 3
"Basically, we don't want to sell soda like the other cola giants. The most important person to us is the consumer, so chances are, [they're going to say] something a helluva lot more interesting than anything a supermodel or sports personality has to say."
-- Jonathan Cutler, spokesman for Virgin Cola, on the refusal of Boston TV stations to air his company's ads featuring a gay couple exchanging "wedding vows," August 17
"Marriage licenses aren't distributed on a first-come, first-served basis here in Iowa. Heterosexual couples don't have to rush out and claim marriage licenses now, before they are all snatched up by gay and lesbian couples. Heterosexual unions are and will continue to be predominant, regardless of what gay and lesbian couples do. To suggest that homosexual couples in any way, shape or form threaten to undermine the stability of heterosexual unions is patently absurd."
- Iowa Rep. Ed Fallon, to the Iowa House 2/20/96
"We must make it clear that a platform of 'I hate gay men and women' is not a way to become president of the United States."
- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter
"You would think that those who are always talking about family values would want to create an environment of permanent relationships for people of the same sex. But they're not advocating family values. They're advocating their values... I still get this shit full-time... They just are haters, period."
- San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown on gay marriage
"...principal House sponsor [of the federal anti-gay-marriage law, 'The Defense of Marriage Act'], Bob Barr of Georgia, his district office
confirms, has been married three times -- which raises the question of why the act doesn't contain a three-strikes-and-you're-out provision."
- NYTimes Frank Rich on DOMA Sponsor Bob Barr
"All that gay and lesbian people are asking for is, if not understanding, then at least tolerance. All they are asking for is the same basic civil equality that all Americans yearn for and should be entitled to."
- Iowa Rep. Ed Fallon, to the Iowa House 2/20/96
"The opportunity to be threatened, humiliated and to live in fear of being beaten to death is the only 'special right' our culture bestows on homosexuals."
- Diane Carman, Denver Post
"In late December, our [Vermont] state Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples are legally entitled to the same benefits and protections as married heterosexuals. And despite the fact that I’m a big, tough, out lesbian who doesn’t need a court ruling to know that my relationship counts, even despite the fact that I like living in sin-I felt really, well, validated. I’ve often suspected that there’s an aspect of sour grapes to my radical politics. Like, if I can’t be in your club, fine. It’s a stupid, smelly, heteropatriarchal club anyway. This is a useful, self-affirming attitude up to a point. But eventually, you start getting bitter and developing nervous tics."
- Dykes To Watch Out For cartoonist Alison Bechdel to the Phoenix gay publication Heatstroke, Dec. 30.
"Demanding legalized gay marriage is a pragmatic decision! It is not about "copying" them. It is about money and rights. Straights don't want us to marry? Then give us all those 1,049 rights, and we'll make up our own form of marriage. No 1,049 rights? Then we demand legalized same-sex marriage!"
- Larry Kramer, Sex and Sensibility, The Advocate, May 27, 1997
posted by simon cantlon at 8:51 AM
Thursday, March 22, 2001
