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Quote UnQuote

Compiled by Rex Wockner

Published Thursday, 20-Jan-2005 in issue 891

“Until you make that decision [to come out], you can tell yourself all you want that it’s nobody’s business and it has nothing to do with anything — [but] it has everything to do with everything. Once you embrace it, then it’s got nothing to do with anything.”

— Ellen DeGeneres to The Advocate, Jan. 18 issue.

“If America doesn’t wake up, it will soon become a big, dumb second-tier nation that values miracles over math and superstition over science. Thanks to the Republicans’ embrace of anti-intellectualism and demagogic fundamentalism, we are already halfway there.”

— Gay activist and author Wayne Besen writing in the Key West, Fla., gay newspaper Celebrate, Dec. 23.

“White House political adviser Karl Rove said after the election that President Bush intends to continue seeking a constitutional amendment that says marriage must consist of a man and a woman. At the same time, GOP congressional aides who attended a series of closed-door meetings recently said Rove did not mention the amendment when he outlined the administration’s key legislative goals for the year ahead. Nor did the issue figure prominently in strategy sessions held by GOP congressional leaders.”

— The Associated Press, Dec. 28.

“We live in a country in which one political party – the one that happens to control all branches of the federal government – ‘activates’ its base by demonizing, scapegoating and actively persecuting homos, a tiny and relatively defenseless minority group. Republicans tell the fundies in their base that the existence of gays and lesbians is a threat to the American family, Western civilization, and as one bigwig R recently put it, ‘the survival of the earth.’ At some point, the Rs are either going to have to make good on their rhetoric and actually do something about all the homos out there imperiling the survival of the planet (hey, maybe we’re responsible for global warming?), or they’re going to have to knock it off.”

— Syndicated columnist Dan Savage, Dec. 29.

“It’s amazing how the gays and lesbians responded to the calamity. Many volunteered with relief work and donated to relief programs. We have received many calls from gay/lesbian people who wanted to support the affected in any possible way. We have also received lots of requests from affected members to assist them with building their destroyed shelters. We have donated clothing, dry rations, cooked food, water and medicine.”

— Sherman de Rose, executive director of the Sri Lankan gay organization Companions on a Journey, in Jan. 1 remarks to this column.

“I’ve never for a moment thought what we did was wrong. ... My resolve has only grown stronger.”

— San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on his decision to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples last year, to Gay.com, Dec. 24.