"It's [my April 7 arrest in a Beverly Hills park men's room for alleged lewd conduct] been humiliating, embarrassing, funny to some degree, but I am reading reports from London that I was led away crying and devastated. The truth was I was led away quite angry -- angry at myself, angry at the situation -- and I did not, believe me, I did not try and convince the arresting officer that I was looking for my lottery ticket.

"I have been living in a circus. There have been helicopters around my house, literally hundreds of people outside my house waiting for something, I don't know what exactly. But I just want to tell my fans who I feel to some degree I have, apart from embarrassing myself, I have embarrassed them, and I just want to let them know I am OK. I know a lot of them realize I have had a very tough time over the last five or six years and I want to let them know this is not going to finish me off. This is really nothing compared to, you know, the bereavements I have had to deal with ... even compared to the legal situations I have had to deal with, this is -- I was going to say a walk in the park, butI don't think that would work!

"I don't even have a choice as to talking about the specifics [of the arrest] because it's in the hands of the district attorney. ... The truth is I put myself in an extremely stupid and vulnerable position, especially because I am in a privileged position. I won't deny that. I won't even attempt to deny – I won't even say that it was the first time that happened. You know, I have put myself in that position before. I can only apologize. I can try to fathom why I did it, to understand my own sexuality a bit better, but ultimately, part of me has to believe that some of the kick was the fact I might get found. You know, deep down I truly believe that. Here I am, I got found. I don't suppose I would find it exciting any more.

"My sexuality was not cut-and-dried [in my twenties]. I spent the first half of my career being accused of being gay when I hadn't had anything like a gay relationship. In fact, I was 27 before that happened to me. So I spent the years growing up being told what my sexuality was, which is kind of confusing. And then, by the time I worked out what it was and stopped having relationships with women, I was just so indignant with the way I had been treated, I just thought, well, I will just hold on to this, I don't think they need to know, I don't think I should have to tell them. But, well, this is as good a time as any.

"I want to say that I have no problem with people knowing I am in a relationship with a man right now, I have not been in a relationship with a woman for almost 10 years. I do want people to know that the songs I wrote when I was with women were really about women and the songs that I have written since have been fairly obviously about men. I think, in terms of my work, I have never been reticent in terms of defining my sexuality. I write about my life, and I want people to know -- especially people who loved the earlier stuff -- there was no bullshit.

"[This is a good time to come out because] I have kind of done that, haven't I? I've done that in a way I didn't really intend to and I think having done something as stupid as that – you know, I am a very proud man, I want people to know that I have not been exposed as a gay man in any way that I feel any shame for. I feel stupid and reckless and weak for having allowed my sexuality to be exposed this way, but I don't feel any shame whatsoever, and neither do I think I should."

--Pop singer George Michael to Cable News Network, April 10.

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"I don't think he has done anything to be ashamed of. The Los Angeles Police Department [sic], which arrested George, should be concentrating on real crime."

--Singer Boy George on singer George Michael's April 7 arrest for lewd conduct in the men's room of a Beverly Hills, Calif., park, to London's Mirror newspaper April 9.

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"I had a homosexual affair only once, and it was a wonderful time in my life, then after that it would appear to me that I'm heterosexual. I assume that women hoped, and now occasionally hope, that there's something in there that's retrievable. But it doesn't seem so."

--Folk singer Joan Baez to Chicago's Windy City Times, March 26.

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"What I would hope is people realize that it was honesty that got me into trouble, it was honesty that made me lose my job [in the military], and I'm not about to change my position in terms of being honest. Just think, you could have someone you could trust in Congress!"

--Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer, who is running for Congress from Washington state, to Atlanta's Southern Voice, March 26.

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"We got a zeal. We're angry at the enemy. There's a spirit that is a homosexual spirit. It's unclean and not of God. That spirit is the enemy. It's a strong spirit, it's deceitful."

--Gospel singer Angie Winans as she and her sister Debbie headed to Washington March 30 to testify in opposition to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

"I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Lut King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people. Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery [and] Selma, in Albany, Georgia, and St. Augustine, Florida, and many other campaigns of the civil-rights movement."

--Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow, speaking t the 25th Anniversary Luncheon of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, March 31 in Chicago.

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"The Mexican macho is not going to admit that a part of his fame machismo is repressed homosexuality. That's why it all has to be so exaggerated."

--Mexican gay actor Tito Vasconcelos to the Toronto Star, March 29.

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"While GLAAD does a lot of good work, I've always been unnerved by the way the gay watchdog group seems to grovel before the mainstream and thank them for throwing us crumbs. The most recent example: As Good As It Gets was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award! Excuse me? This slick, Oscar-winning vessel from Hollywood hell might not be worthy of a full-scale street riot, but a award? For the 800th time: Yes, Greg Kinnear's gay character is sweet and ultimately appreciated, but ... he, in fact, is only queer because he says so and has frosted hair and a foofy dog. And though the filmmakers clearly see him as a lovable survivor, one mainly remembers the fact that he's no closer to an actua human being than a department store mannequin with a limp wrist and a 'Beat Me' tattoo. Thanks, Hollywood!"

--Village Voice columnist Michael Musto, March 31.

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"In the long run, the message of [the movie] 'As Good As It Gets' is here's a lonely, pathetic, victim homo who at the end finds happiness because he learns to draw naked women. What a horrible message--played by a heterosexual! Because even having a gay person play it is too disgusting."

--Playwright/actor Harvey Fierstein to Denver's Out Front, March 25.

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"Chastity [Bono] is a very sweet young woman. But what the fuc has she ever done? I don't mean that as an attack. I never understood why the Human Rights Campaign was paying her as a spokesperson. Anymore than I understood why they're paying Candace Gingrich. Not that they're not wonderful people, but their life certainly doesn't speak to my life--anymore than I speak to theirs."

--Playwright/actor Harvey Fierstein to Denver's Out Front, March 25.

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"How do you criticize Ellen for doing a show that's too gay? When all I see on television is heterosexuals! There's so much self- loathing in our community that it is absolutely disgusting. What do you need to do to prove how much self-loathing there is? Just pick up any newspaper that has personal ads in it and look at how many say, 'No Fats, No Femmes, Straight-Acting Seeking Same, In the Closet, Do Not Believe in the Gay Lifestyle.' Do you ever see an ad for a heterosexual saying,'Please Don't Act Straight?' What kind of fucking shit is that?"

--Playwright/actor Harvey Fierstein to Denver's Out Front, March 25.

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"Over the years, HRC [the Human Rights Campaign] has developed a reputation for pulling money out of local communities without giving back, for swooping into town, treating the local organizers like rubes and setting up parallel organizing structures without respect to the wishes, knowledge or insights of the people who must live with the fallout."

--Nadine Smith, co-chair of the 1993 March On Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation, in an April 1 syndicated opinion column opposing the controversial proposed gay 2000 Millennium March on Washington.

"It [my ongoing three-year relationship] has made a big difference in my life. Before I met him, I didn't have healthy relationships. I used to scream: 'Rescue me! Rescue me!' And he didn't. He was wise enough to let me rescue myself. What a concept!"

--Gay Olympic diver Greg Louganis to the San Francisco Examiner, March 31.

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"People make assumptions that they know me because I've shared - - through my book and [my new] video -- more than what most of their best friends have ever shared. It's hard because it throws me off -- am I supposed to know them? So it really puts me at a disadvantage."

--Gay Olympic diver Greg Louganis to the North Carolina gay newspaper The Front Page, March 27.

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"Often I spend as much time on something like those little background details [such as the names on books at the Madwimmin Books store] as I do writing the stories. That's part of the compulsion, I guess. My real downfall, though, has been the Internet. Now I have 24-hour-a-day access to every piece of information in the universe. It's scary."

--Cartoonist Allison Bechdel (Dykes To Watch Out For) to Virginia's Our Own Community Press, April issue.

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"I can't tell you how many people have come to me over the years and said they came out to my music or that they remembered exactly where they were when they first heard one of my songs, because they were just getting out of the closet. ... I think it's such a tickle that people are rediscovering disco. As people in the gay community know, it never really went away. It just tickles me that the mainstream has finally realized what it's all about."

--70s disco diva Vickie Sue Robinson (Turn the Beat Around), to Atlanta's Etcetera magazine, April 3.

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"When we were interviewed for this gay radio station in London, it just dawned on me how amazing it was that we had so many gay fans. So I asked the reporter why. He told me that the song 'We Are Family' made us all feel like brothers and sisters, and it was as though we had opened our arms to them with this outpouring of love. It was such a great thing to be told. It made me feel wonderful."

--Joanie Sledge of the disco group Sister Sledge to Atlanta's Etcetera magazine, April 3.

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"I'm as gay as anybody. You don't have to mince words about how I feel. I'm in support of everything the gay community is trying to do."

--70s disco diva Alicia Bridges (I Love the Nightlife) to Atlanta's Etcetera magazine, April 3.

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"I find it absurd that so much negative criticism has been directed towards gay glossies. Why is it that a gay magazine is not considered legitimate unless it's reporting the news, no matter how banal? How newsworthy is it if the local dog-catcher is a fag? To some people, you don't have the right to publish a gay magazine unless you use it as a platform for advancing the homosexual agenda. Politics and equal rights are important, but what about options? Surely we've gone far enough in our struggle for gay rights to be able to sit back, relax, and enjoy a good read. Gay glossies don't need to duplicate the services of local publications or pattern themselves on other magazines. The Advocate is an excellent source of American gay news. Similarly, (yawn), when $2,500 goes missing from your local drag organization, the local queer press is there to sniff out the story. Our mandate is to provide sexy images, controversial opinion, and kick-ass writing, sometimes informing, always entertaining. A magazine is not a department store; it cannot be all things to all people. I don't think this makes it any less valid. Any problems with that?"

--Jim Armstrong, editor-in-chief of the Canadian gay glossy Fab, writing in the Spring 1998 issue.

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"Crudely put: 'Don't ask, don't tell' don't work. The rule was first implemented in 1994 as a way of protecting loyal and skilled soldiers and sailors from being run out of the military simply because they were gay. But according to a Defense Department study released this week homosexuals discharged from the military as a consequence of their sexual orientation has grown 67% since 1994, to 997 last year – just opposite the law's desired effect."

--USA Today editorial, April 9.

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"The height of the drama is inversely proportional to the depth of your maturity."

--From Shelly Roberts' upcoming book Roberts' Rules of Lesbian Dating.

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"Dear Ms. Birch: Thank you for getting back to me concerning a quote attributed to you in which Sex Panic is called 'a kind o lunatic fringe discussion.' In our phone conversation, you denied ever having said such a thing. Ms. [Delia] Rios, author of the article for Newhouse News Service from which the quote was taken (and then widely disseminated in media-review columns, most notably Rex Wockner's 'Quote, Unquote'), stands by the accuracy of her quote (after consulting her notes on her conversation with you). Furthermore, she reports that you have voiced no dissatisfaction with the content nor accuracy of her piece. A correction from you is clearly necessary if, in fact, you do not believe Sex Panic to be a 'lunatic fringe discussion.' I would be happy to share any such correction with those I've contacted regarding this matter."

--French Wall, editor of the Boston gay magazine The Guide, in a March 31 letter to Human Rights Campaign Executive Director Elizabeth Birch. Sex Panic! is a group of activists and academics fighting against, among other things, crackdowns on gay cruising spaces by police and politicians. The group also is engaged in a war of words with gay authors Michelangelo Signorile, Gabriel Rotello, Larry Kramer and Andrew Sullivan, primarily over the issue of promiscuity.

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