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Quote UnQuote

Compiled by Rex Wockner

Published Thursday, 06-May-2010 in issue 1167

“I want to send a warm greeting to all our Latin American friends who live in the state of Arizona. The SB 1070 is a law that doesn’t make sense. You are not alone. We are with you. Stop discrimination. Stop hate. Stop racism. Enough already. Long live love. Long live peace.”

Openly gay singer Ricky Martin at the Billboard Latin Music Awards, April 29 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The new, widely criticized Arizona law requires police to check an individual’s immigration status whenever an officer suspects an individual may be in the U.S. illegally.

“We in the LGBT community know what it’s like to be the target of discrimination, and we have to stand firmly in support of other groups that are also impacted by discrimination. I think that’s the only way all of us collectively are going to have full rights and full equality, if we make a point of standing together when one group is targeted.”

Gay San Francisco Supervisor David Campos urging LGBTs to actively oppose Arizona’s “horrendous” new “Papers, please” law targeting primarily Mexican residents, to the Bay Area Reporter, April 29.

“All of the (LGBT) groups that are specifically in the Beltway have gotten used to access and power and they’ve forgotten the young kid in Mississippi who thinks daily about slitting their wrists or is being beaten up daily ... Our national organizations are much like the DNC in my opinion. It’s more about an organization and fitting into what the organization’s leadership wants and less about serving the people.”

Robin McGehee, co-founder of the new LGBT civil-disobedience group GetEQUAL, to this column, April 27.

“In 2004 the social question that animated the campaign was gay marriage. Before the election season had unfolded, I had talked to George about not making gay marriage a significant issue. We have, I reminded him, a number of close friends who are gay or whose children are gay. But at that moment I could never have imagined what path this issue would take and where it would lead.”

Laura Bush in her new book, Spoken From the Heart.

“Far too many of the gay ‘leaders’ publicly defending the Obama administration’s lackluster record on gay civil rights either run lobbying firms with interests before the administration, or are looking for administration jobs. It’s readily transparent, it’s the same people every time. They are defending the administration for their own personal gain, at the expense of your civil rights.”

AMERICAblog’s John Aravosis, April 24.

“(T)oo many of our so-called ‘activists’ are too concerned with currying favor, preserving access and pursuing administration jobs to stand up to a president and a party that take LGBT support for granted. The LGBT movement is nearing a crossroads. The strategy of aligning closely with the Democratic Party must pay off in the next few months. Otherwise, new leadership and new strategies will need to emerge and prevail.”

Washington Blade Editor Kevin Naff in an April 23 commentary.

“A new phase in the gay rights movement – the serious civil disobedience era – has arrived. It’s time. ... We have to make ignoring our demands and breaking their promises – on DADT, ENDA, DOMA – more trouble for our ‘friends’ in the Democratic party and the White House than making good on their promises ever could be.”

Gay writer Dan Savage, on his blog, April 20.