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Quote UnQuote

Compiled by Rex Wockner

Published Thursday, 20-May-2004 in issue 856

“[In the past] when gay culture was attacked we headed for the hills of high art to sort of protect ourselves. People like Oscar Wilde, Jean Cocteau. ... We just aren’t doing that right now. The intellectual level has been lowered. It’s a generation of window-dressers once again.”

— Singer Rufus Wainwright to Toronto’s Xtra!, April 15

“Little has changed at the White Party Tweak Fest. Aside from the $20 cover charge for the once-free pool party and the rigged drinking water fountains that forced you to fork over $5 for a bottle of water that normally costs $1, it was pretty much the same sorority-reject-cookie-cut-out-half-baked cunts that you witness every year. Nothing new, fun and exciting happened that would lure me back to this desert wasteland of wasted time, wasted money and wasted people again!”

— Columnist Paulo Murillo in Los Angeles’ fab!, May 7

“One of the things about cruising and having a secret sex life for so long is that I think it helped me keep my feet on the ground. And it meant I was constantly meeting ordinary people. How else would I have done that ... and be on their level?”

— Pop singer George Michael to Britain’s Attitude magazine, May issue. Michael, 40, was outed in 1998 after being arrested for allegedly waving his willy at a hunky undercover cop in a Beverly Hills, Calif., park toilet.

“In Provincetown these days you see men taking their babies to Herring Cove Beach. You wonder what will happen to cruising when men carry their babies to Herring Cove Beach.”

— Author Thomas King, director of graduate studies at Brandeis University, to the Los Angeles Times, April 25

“Gay men should not adopt the sophomoric model of heterosexual dating; gay men should always have sex first.”

— Author John Rechy to the Los Angeles Times, April 25

“Last year, the whole [gay] community was gaga over what a wonderful guy Howard Dean was because he signed the civil-unions bill. But that was nine months ago. Now that’s not enough. What was a radical notion a year ago is now the default position.”

— U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., to The New York Observer, April 26

“Jesus Christ. I mean, give me a break! I mean what is the big thing here? I mean, is this going to be Sodom and Gomorrah? Jesus Christ. Half the marriages end up in divorce right now. Half the ... people who are beating the hell out of their wives are good heterosexual married people. I mean give me a break!”

— Chicago Alderman Richard Mell, whose daughter Deborah is gay, on same-sex marriage, to the Chicago Tribune, April 28. Another of Mell’s daughters is married to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who opposes same-sex marriage.

“I think that the hallmark of gay people is that they have a substantially lowered self-esteem; that’s why it’s taken us so long to come around and demand equality!”

— ‘Queer As Folk’ actor Robert Gant to Chicago’s Windy City Times, April 21