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Actor George Takei (Star Trek’s Sulu) announcing his engagement to partner Brad Altman, May 16.

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Quote UnQuote

Compiled by Rex Wockner

Published Thursday, 05-Jun-2008 in issue 1067

“$160 million to the Department of Defense for developing a device that can jam gaydar. Now I don’t know if this is anti-gay or pro-gay or if such a device would even work. But I do know this: Jamming gaydar is not a federal responsibility. That’s something that’s best left to state and local governments.”

John McCain talking about pork-barrel spending on TV’s “Saturday Night Live,” May 17.

“You know, I’m wishing everyone good luck with their (same-sex) marriages and I hope that California’s economy is booming because everyone is going to come here and get married.”

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger addressing an Environmental Defense Fund event in San Francisco, May 20.

“Brad and I have shared our lives together for over 21 years. ... He is my love and I can’t imagine life without him. Now, we can have the dignity, as well as all the responsibilities, of marriage. We embrace it all heartily. ... No more ‘separate but equal.’ No more second-class citizenship. Brad and I are going to be married as full citizens of our state.”

Actor George Takei (Star Trek’s Sulu) announcing his engagement to partner Brad Altman, May 16.

“Well, first of all, I made a statement when I was governor and I stand by it today. Love is bigger than government. Who the hell are we as a government to tell people who you can fall in love with? I think it’s absurd – the fact that it’s even being debated. We can solve the problem simply. Government only acknowledges civil unions, then you don’t have to put your sex down. Let the churches acknowledge marriage. They’re the private sector. If they don’t want to acknowledge it, they have every right to do so. How on earth can we even entertain the fact that government should have the ability to tell you as an individual who you can fall in love with? Ridiculous. ... You can’t take a civil rights issue and put it up to a vote. If you did that, we might still have slavery if it was allowed to be voted on.”

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura discussing the California voter initiative to amend the constitution to undo the Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage, on MSNBC, May 22.

“Not only do we have gay characters, but one of the central themes is a very gay conceit, which is your family is not the family you came from. Your family (develops) when you come to a place you always wanted to be and you meet people who are like you, and you create your own family. You notice in the series that we almost never meet anybody’s family. Once we met Charlotte’s brother. We heard about Miranda’s father after he was dead. But we never meet anybody’s parents or family. And they really wanted to keep it about the family you create.”

Openly lesbian “Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon (Miranda) to Towleroad.com, May 26.

“I certainly owe my beginning to gay men because I started out in Greenwich Village and gays were the first ones who thought I was funny.”

Comedian Joan Rivers to the Pittsburgh gay newspaper Out, June issue.

“My policy is don’t ask because it’s not my business, and don’t put me in the position to make it my business. I don’t condone it, but I also am not sitting in judgment on anyone. I don’t think I’m intolerant, I just don’t condone the lifestyle. Your personal lifestyle should be nobody’s issue but yours. It’s not a civil rights issue, it’s a personal choice issue.”

Birmingham, Ala., Mayor Larry Langford refusing May 24 to issue a permit for the Pride parade. He later backed down, acknowledging that the mayor’s office is not where such permits come from.

Assistance: Bill Kelley