Gay Today: Quote

Quotes & Quips

Compiled By Jack Nichols

Kevin Bacon Wanted a Larger Sausage

I wish I had gotten one of those Marky Mark prosthetic organs. Even half of that would have been fine with me.

Kevin Bacon, discussing his nude scene in Wild Things—The Best of the Superstars 1999 (STARbooks)

If Larry Flint's a Hero— Who's Jerry Springer?

You gotta admire a guy like Jerry Springer. It takes real courage to tackle some of today's social issues by having pregnant lesbians throw chairs at each other. Oh sure, the media insists he's merely a self-promoting blowhard who appeals solely to morons in trailer parks. But that's only because those stuffy uptight critics don't realize how much thought and planning go into every program.

Scott Maiko—"Trash TV" MAD magazine—January issue

The Model of Masculinity His Father Represented

My father told me when I was very young—he'd say it when he was drunk—that I shouldn't be like him, that I shouldn't be an alcoholic, and I shouldn't be violent toward other people the way he was. So I learned very young that the model of masculinity my father represented does not make you happy. I identified so much with my mother and step mothers that the terrible violence men wreck on women is something I wanted to avoid at all costs.

Depending on your image of homosexuality, you can say that this has something to do with me being gay. But for me, being a man has always been associated with the choice of weather to be violent specifically toward women, or not.

Dale Peck— "Mandatory Reading"--Interview by Martha McPhee, Interview, February issue

Among the Serbs: Pecker Checking Gone too Far!

"To the Serbs, the Muslims are no longer human…A Muslim man is Bosani Petrovac..(was) forced to bite off the penis of a fellow Muslim…If you say that a man is not human, but the man looks like you and the only way to identify this devil is to make him drop his trousers—Muslim men are circumcised and Serb men are not—it is probably only a short step, psychologically, to cutting off his prick…There has never been a campaign of ethnic cleaning from which sexual sadism has gone missing."

David Rieff quoted from The New Yorker in Richard Rorty's Truth and Progress , philosophical papers (published by Cambridge University Press, 1998)

Perhaps Just 99% of What He Says?

(Pat Robertson's belief that Clinton has won over his detractors) "shows that we're not tools of the Christian Right. We don't always necessarily agree with everything that Pat Robertson says."

Representative Henry J. Hyde, Republican of Illinois, lead prosecutor in the case against the President—New York Times, January 22

Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Pope-sickle

(Henry) Hyde (Republican-Illinois) was made a "papal knight" of the Catholic church three years ago because he was one of a group of men "who promote the church's interests." Another who received the papal knight award for serving Vatican interests was David P. Schippers, who was chosen by Hyde to be the impeachment prosecutor of the president for the Judiciary Committee.

John M. Swomley—"The Two Faces of Mr. Hyde" The Humanist, January/February issue

She Liberated Me from a Repressed, Puritanical View of Sex

She died on October 24, 1998 and, sadly, I never got to thank her adequately. For she changed my life—so many years ago—by liberating me from a repressed, puritanical view of sex and then introducing me to the wonders of what she recognized as our most precious gift: our human sexuality and the capacity to experience it fully.

Harriet Epstein—eulogizing Mary Calderone, M.D., a co-founder of the Sex Information & Education Council of the United States (SIECUS)-- The Humanist, January/February issue.

Bishop'll Bless Ya Later, Kids

Bishop Michael Ingham says the six passages in the Bible that appear to condemn homosexuality are specific to a time and culture.

Anglican bishop Michael Ingham of Vancouver has postponed approving relationships between committed homosexual Christians until at least 2001.

Bishop Ingham believes the church will decide to formally bless such relationships in time, but the decision has to be put off for at least two years because many Anglicans are opposed. After a cross-Canada consultation, he said he will not consent to same-sex blessings unless a "clear and substantial" majority vote for them.

The Vancouver diocese is the only one in Canada where local delegates have voted in favour of priests blessing long-term, same-gender relationships. Bishop Ingham is among the third of Canadian Anglican bishops willing to endorse the marriage-like ceremonies.

But he feels he must override his diocese's slim majority and his own conscience.

Denise Howard--The Vancouver Sun, January 18, 1999

Gary Bauer's Got Some 'Most Impressive Numbers'

Gary Bauer would not be America's shortest president. He is two inches taller than James Madison's 5 feet four inches. But Bauer's most impressive numbers are:

In the last election cycle his political action committee raised $7 million, more than Dan Quayle or Lamar Alexander raised. This was in addition to the $15 million raised by the Family Research Council, which Bauer heads. Granted, the Council is a non-profit organization, so contributions are tax deductible and, unlike political contributions, can exceed $1,000. Still, fresh from raising $22 million in one year, on Friday, Bauer, 52, will leave The Family Research Council to seek the Republican presidential nomination.

George F. Will : "Bauer-The Right Track" The Washington Post, January 14

Is Trent Lott Big Enough?

Senator Lott frequently pops off, perhaps a symptom of his own frustrations or insecurity as Majority Leader. Last summer, for instance, he delivered an impromptu jeremiad against gays that sounded gratuitously hostile coming from someone in such an influential position. Did that Lott come from Lott's Southern Baptist upbringing? Or was it politically calculated to give his party the upper hand in the culture wars? You could ask the same question about his continuing association with Old South racialist organizations. Either way, his outbursts rattle even allies and make them wonder whether he is big enough for the job.

William Greider—"Trent Lott:Power Failure" Rolling Stone, February 4