"Inside this big bull dyke beats the heart of a vicious queen. Musical theater has always been my dream. I know all the songs that Judy Garland ever recorded and can sing them--I'm really abig fag! I'm like one of those bear guys--a big papa bear."

--Dyke comic and actress Lea DeLaria to Out magazine, March issue.

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"You don't have to call it outing. It's just telling the truthabout a celebrity. I think that if you consider that subject off-limits because certain people might be offended by it, then you're agreeing with those people that [being gay] is offensive.And you're presuming that there are bigots out there, and you're catering to the bigots by excluding that piece of information. Whether you like it or not, I'm going to continue addressing it in my column, along with everything else about celebrities. I'm not making that the last taboo."

--Village Voice columnist Michael Musto to Out magazine, March issue.

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"I'd rather hear about her actually fucking than about her keeping sperm in her refrigerator."

--Village Voice columnist Michael Musto on Madonna to Out magazine, March issue.

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"The reason this award from GLAAD means so much to me is because I'm being honored by the gay community, a group of people who have stood by me and my career through thick and thin."

--Cher upon receiving news that GLAAD will honor her April 19 with its 1998 Vanguard Award for promotion of gay equality.

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"I've never known the homosexual community to be lynched, to be bombed, to be told you can't drink out of water fountains, youcan't eat at restaurants, you must sit at the back of the bus. But that happened to us."

--Alveda King, Martin Luther King's niece, as quoted in Jacksonville's Florida Times-Union, Feb. 18.

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"I've never known homosexuals as a class of people told to sit on the back of the bus. Homosexuality cannot be elevated to the civil-rights issue. The civil-rights movement was born from the Bible. God hates homosexuality. ... God loves the people who commit acts of homosexuality. We're suggesting to the homosexuals that there is love and faith available for them."

--Alveda King, Martin Luther King's niece, as quoted in Raleigh, North Carolina's News & Observer, Feb. 19.

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"I'm not unhappy now because I live in America where happiness rains down from the sky and everybody is your friend. The pursuit of happiness is written into the Constitution here. But to pursue happiness in England would be considered a frivolous objective."

--Gay writer-actor Quentin Crisp to Sydney, Australia's Capital Q, Feb. 13.

<><><8><><>

--Indigo Girl Amy Ray to Curve magazine, March issue.

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"Sex Panic is a group of committed and intelligent individuals who are grappling with complex issues and who deserve--at the very least--a fair hearing. I would expect the mainstream media to favor sensationalism, but I think the gay press should do better. I'm not saying that Sex Panic is above criticism, certainly not. But ... nothing in the media has done anything but spread rumors and lies."

--Jim Baxter, owner of the North Carolina gay newspaper The Front Page, writing in the Feb. 13 issue. Baxter took issue, in particular, with recent mainstream-media commentaries by author Larry Kramer and Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director Rich Tafel.

<><><10><><>

"ABC has given Ellen DeGeneres 'strong indications' that her series will not be renewed next season, the star told an audience at her show's taping Friday night. When asked whether this was the last season of 'Ellen,' DeGeneres stated matter-of-factly, 'Yes, it is.' An ABC spokeswoman said the network has not decided the show's fate and won't do so until May."

--Variety, Feb. 25.

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"I'm gay, the character's gay and that's the problem everyone has with the show. It's just too controversial. Nobody wants to deal with it."

--Ellen DeGeneres to Entertainment Tonight, Feb. 23.

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"What is happening today in Latvia in this area [gays' demands for equality] is possible only because of the present circumstances of the establishment of a new democracy. Further stirring up of the issue of sexual rights will inevitably cause confrontation between homosexuals and the rest of society, incomprehension and even a backlash on the part of society, which would not be in the interests of sexual minorities. Legislative changes are not necessary at this time, since demands to legalize same-sex marriage and to allow the adoption of children by same-sex couples are absolutely unreasonable, even in the light of human rights."

--Antons Seiksts, head of Latvia's Parliamentary Human Rights Commission, in a recent interview with the Riga newspaper Fokuss.

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--Gay activist Chastity Bono, Sonny & Cher's daughter, to Boston's Bay Windows, Feb. 12.

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"I miss him. And I feel bad that we kind of let our relationship drift a little in the past couple of years. A lot of it was over just different views on things. And now that he's gone I realize that it wasn't important enough not to have a relationship. ... I got frustrated with [my dad] and I have a really close relationship with my mom and I put a lot of my focus into that."

--Gay activist Chastity Bono, on her dad, Sonny Bono, who died recently in a skiing accident, to Boston's Bay Windows, Feb. 12.

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"I will use my judgment as prime minister to decide where I go and what I support. And you can decide at the polling booth whether you support me. I decided to go to the [gay] HERO parade because New Zealand is one of the only countries to have a falling AIDS rate and it's because of groups like HERO who give all their profit to the AIDS Foundation to get the message across. There was nothing vulgar or promiscuous [in the parade]. Last year I think it was excessive and I think the fact that I was there helped them clean up."

--Conservative New Zealand Prime Minister Jenny Shipley to The New Zealand Herald, Feb. 28.

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"I'm not upfront about defining myself as anything, to tell you the truth. I'm upfront as defining myself as somebody who accepts and is open to loving someone who's an individual who I connect with. I think ['bisexual' is] a label that people need to put on people when they're not comfortable with their own sexuality, when they need back-up from other people. I think that's really where that all stems from. I don't really have time for that whole philosophical-political lifestyle. I'm too busy being creative and moving forward."

--Comedian Sandra Bernhard to Los Angeles' Lesbian News, February issue.

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"I don't think there's any difference between what I find sexy in men or women. I think it's definitely an attitude and it's definitely something that's about a certain kind of confidence and self-awareness that makes somebody attractive and strong. I don't think it's something all that tangible. It's certainly not a look in somebody's eye. It's something that transcends hair color."

--Comedian Sandra Bernhard to Los Angeles' Lesbian News, February issue.

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"I feel very fortunate with the timing in my life ... Had I been born a little earlier, I would have been a closeted gay--as it was, talking out loud about being gay during the 1950s was shocking; even in the more liberal sixties, it was difficult to discuss. I'm fortunate the Stonewall movement happened in my early adulthood because it [allowed] me to live my life as an openly gay man and as a result my sexuality really wasn't a big problem."

--Veteran theater composer/songwriter Jerry Herman to Art & Understanding, February issue.

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"Queer theory is about resisting normalization. I guess that would be the nutshell. An awful lot of people have some stake in resisting normalization. However, there are also a lot of gay people who would like nothing better than to be normalized."

--Michael Warner, co-founder of Sex Panic! and a prominent figure in the field of queer studies, to North Carolina's The Front Page, Jan. 30.

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"Our [Sex Panic's] whole message, really, is that [authors Larry] Kramer and [Gabriel] Rotello and their ilk have forgotten some of the basic principles of safer sex including 'fight AIDS, not sex.' Including the need to have prevention be anchored in people's own desires and practices. And to have people take care of themselves rather than have the government do it for them. So a return to safer sex is really our basic point."

--Michael Warner, co-founder of Sex Panic! and a prominent figure in the field of queer studies, to North Carolina's The Front Page, Jan. 30.

Rex Wockner's Quote Unquote is archived from mid-1994 onward at http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/world/wockner.html