“My mom has a rainbow bumper sticker on her car. She’s determined to do her part for gay visibility in unincorporated McHenry County, Ill., despite the fact that there aren’t any gay people in McHenry County to visualize. My mother almost paid a high price driving a gay-identified car: Last summer she and my stepfather were nearly driven off the road by a couple of men screaming, ‘Faggots!’”

“I love [gay U.S. Rep.] Barney Frank, but one of his aides needs to tell him not to pick his nose on ‘Nightline.’”

“The fight against the Federal Marriage Amendment, as this ugly piece of work is nicknamed, is the Gettysburg of the gay rights movement. It’s all or nothing. Because, if the right to marry is preempted by this constitutional travesty, our life partnerships will remain second-class, morally suspect, extra-legal, unrecognized and unequal for the indefinite future.”

“Over a decade ago I came out to my family at Thanksgiving. This year, as they pass the cranberry sauce, they’re in for an even bigger surprise. I’m going back in. I’m not planning on breaking up with my partner of five years or even turning in my collection of Kylie Minogue dance mixes. I’ve just realized that being gay isn’t what it used to be. Prime time [television] has done to homosexuality what Disney has done to Times Square. What was once decadent and expressive has become sanitized and boring.”