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Quote UnQuote

Compiled by Rex Wockner

Published Thursday, 26-Jan-2006 in issue 944

“Jack, who strikes me as a sexual predator, tracks Ennis down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts. But sporadic is not frequent enough for Jack. He wants Ennis full-time. He whines, he pleads, he shouts that when they’re apart, he’s desolated. Jack can’t absorb Ennis’ implied response: Better desolate than never. Heath Ledger’s performance under Ang Lee’s direction is outstanding [but the film] is being wildly over-praised. Not by me.”

Gene Shalit reviewing Brokeback Mountain on NBC’s “Today Show,” Jan. 5.

“In describing the behavior of Jack, I used words (‘sexual predator’) that I now discover have angered, agitated and hurt many people. I did not intend to use a word that many in the gay community consider incendiary. I certainly had no intention of casting aspersions on anyone in the gay community or on the community itself. I regret any emotional hurt that may have resulted from my review of Brokeback Mountain.”

Gene Shalit apologizing to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation on Jan. 10.

“If I go into a gay bar or club – which I do – there’s almost no one who doesn’t know me, black or white. But that hasn’t affected my personal interactions. I’m a loner. I’ve run away from intimate commitment my entire adult life.”

Openly gay South African High Court Judge Edwin Cameron to POZ magazine, January issue.

“I read an inordinate number of magazines. I like paper, but I do enjoy online sites like Slate and Salon. I’m not into blogs; I have blogophobia. Probably the best time for me is reading the paper in the morning with [partner] Urvashi [Vaid]. One of us is usually screaming about something in the news, from [the administration’s position on] torture, to the face transplant, to Brokeback Mountain. I’ve been wondering what the lesbian equivalent would be. Housewives in Toledo? All I could think after I saw that movie was thank God for the gay movement.”

Comedian Kate Clinton to planetout.com, Jan. 5.

“It’s a measure of how enlarged the open cultural space available to gays has become – as a result of three decades of struggle, coming out, and the subsequent recognition of the gay consumer market – that 2005 marked the debut of three national gay television networks in America. … But the programming offered by these gay networks is quite disappointing, when it’s not downright appalling – especially when one imagines what it could be like.”

Gay journalist and media critic Doug Ireland writing on his blog about Logo, QTN and Here, Jan. 5.