Gay Today: Quote

Quotes & Quips

Compiled By Jack Nichols

Thomas Jefferson Opposes the Clergy

The clause of the Constitution which, while it secured the freedom of the press, covered also the freedom of religion, had given to the clergy a very favorable hope of obtaining an establishment of a particular form of Christianity through the United States; and as every sect believes its own form the true one, every one perhaps hoped for his own. The returning good sense of our country threatens abortion to their hopes, and they believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the alter of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough too in their opinion.

U.S. President Thomas Jefferson (part of this quotation appears on the interior dome of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.)

Self-Imprisonment? No Way.

Unable to actually imprison us, these terrorists want us to imprison ourselves. Sorry, but no way. It breaks my heart to think about the people who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, but I will not let it break my spirit. I went to the ballgame Friday night, took in Dvorak's "New World" Symphony at the Kennedy Center Saturday, took my girls out to breakfast in Washington Sunday morning... I wonder what Osama bin Laden did in his cave yesterday?

Thomas Friedman-- "Terrorism Game Theory"--New York Times, September 25

Pray and Pay

Beginning today, I am asking one million people - people just like you - to join this mighty prayer effort by visiting my Web site.

Jerry Falwell-"The Liberty Alliance"-October 13

Homegrown Religious Fanatics, 2001

The religious fanaticism that killed thousands at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is not confined to Muslims or to distant lands. America has its home-grown extremists and fundamentalists who brazenly displayed their intolerance…

Bob Roehr-"America's Taliban"-The Front Page, North Carolina, September 28

Democracy's Same-Sex-Loving Twin

It is to the development, identification, and general prevalence of that fervid comradeship (the adhesive love at least rivaling the amative love hitherto possessing imaginative literature, if not going beyond it), that I look for the counterbalance and offset of materialistic and vulgar American Democracy, and for the spiritualization thereof…I say Democracy infers such loving comradeship, as its most inevitable twin or counterpart, without which it will be incomplete, in vain, and incapable of perpetuating itself.

Walt Whitman-"Democratic Vistas" 1871

He's Not My Daddy!

If you didn't know anything about Debbie and Chris, you might mistake them for an ordinary couple - as several of the people in their neighborhood have done since they moved to Massachusetts from North Carolina just over two years ago. Most recently, an older woman walking her dog happened upon Chris and Hannah raking the front yard. When the woman leaned toward Hannah and asked the kind of simple-minded rhetorical question adults so often put to children - "Are you raking leaves with your daddy?'' - she got the kind of you-asked-for-it wallop of truth only a child can deliver: ''He's not my daddy!'' Hannah said brightly. ''He was born a woman!''

Sara Corbett-" Does a Sex Change Mean the End of the Relationship?"-New York Times Magazine, October 14

While Public Attention is Diverted

Almost as soon as President Bush finished hugging the high ground Thursday night in his news conference, House Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee spent all day Friday ramming through a $100 billion tax-cut package filled with bonuses for corporations, wealthy Americans and others least in need of help. Republicans waited until 10:30 p.m. the night before to spring the bill on Democrats, reverting to the poisonous old practices of steamrolling legislation through and, this time, exploiting a tragic national emergency in the process.

Editorial-"The Return of Partisanship"-New York Times, October 13

Desire and the Gender Divide

It seems that something different is emerging on the street these days, a new music coming out of the cultural radio. It is composed of, and heard by, ordinary women and men of all varieties who sleep with, fall in love with, live with and break up with both women and men over the courses of their lives, the current of desire flowing easily over the gender divide and leading them where it may. At the moment, these people tend to be artists, students and other cultural explorers, but they probably won't be lonely for long.

Stacey D'Erasmo-" Has Sexual Identity Outlived Its Usefulness?"-New York Times Magazine, October 14

Baby Love

Gay singer Horse McDonald has revealed her love for a secret baby daughter…Her long-time lover Susan Kelso gave birth to little Esme after a gay pal of the couple donated his sperm…Now the singer, who has become a gay icon, has written a song on her new album for Esme and used a picture of the red-haired tot on the sleeve.

Sunday Mail-(Glasgow, Scotland) "Gay Star's Song For Secret Baby"-October 14

September 11th Affects an AIDS Walk

About 3,500 people defied the blustery conditions yesterday morning for the 15th annual walk, but it was a much smaller showing than in recent years, when more than 20,000 have walked.

Petula Dvorak-"Walkers Turn Out for Clinic"-Washington Post, October 8