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Quote UnQuote

Compiled by Rex Wockner

Published Thursday, 29-May-2003 in issue 805

“I have been sneered at, ridiculed, cold-shouldered. I think they see me as the visual representation of a show they feel gets it wrong and is not representative of their lives and unbelievable.”

— Actor Gale Harold, Brian on “Queer As Folk,” to the Associated Press, May 7.

“I think the whole bravery thing [when a straight actor plays a gay role] is a sound bite.... The only people I think are brave in relationship to the stories we’re telling are the people they’re based on, and the ‘out’ actors who work on our show. There’s still a lot of homophobia in the world at large and in every industry, the entertainment industry included.... What do I have to be worried about? I’m a straight white male, working on a show playing a gay man.”

— Actor Gale Harold, Brian on “Queer As Folk,” to the Associated Press, May 7.

“The U.S. [government] declared May 18 as HIV Vaccine Awareness Day.’ [I]t seems better to call it ‘No Vaccine Awareness Day.’ Or how about ‘HIV-Was-Discovered-Twenty-Years-Ago-and-There-Is-Still-No-Vaccine Awareness Day.’ AIDS research and prevention have been a veritable history of irresponsibility, malfeasance, political manipulation, unsubstantiated ‘breakthroughs,’ meaningless gestures, uneducated guesses, ineffective measures, squandered resources, bureaucratic bloat, rampant careerism and deliberate dishonesty.”

— Syndicated gay-press columnist Paul Varnell, May 12.

“[They] jiggle their bottoms, put their little fingers in the air and with their little castrato voices and moan about what those ghastly heteros put them through.”

— Actress Brigitte Bardot, 68, in her new book, A Cry in The Silence. Bardot says France is being destroyed by gays, modern art, fast food, trash TV, politicians and Muslim immigrants.

“It’s really weird. A below average baseball player tells one reporter he’s gay, and he becomes a bigger celebrity than when he was playing. Only in America.”

— Former pro baseball player Billy Bean to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 14.

“The variety of lesbian lives and looks [in America] is astounding, ranging from East-Village punk skate dykes to bouffant BMW-driving Californian golfing ladies.”

— The British national lesbian magazine Diva, June issue.

“Once, having HIV was so awful that HIVers pretty much got a pass. They weren’t long for this earth, so why burden them with uncomfortable truths, criticism and appeals to responsible behavior? Like, ‘It’s immoral to pass the virus on.’”

— Syndicated gay writer Dan Savage in POZ magazine, June issue.

“I get offered the big parts and people tell me I’m a movie star. That didn’t happen before I came out. I was leading a secret life, hiding and lying about something that was central to my nature. Now I have nothing to hide. Acting is no longer about lying. It’s now about revealing the truth. People are at ease with me now. Honesty is the best policy.”

— Sir Ian McKellen to Britain’s The Times, May 20.