"It's hilarious what people are making up about us. No, it's shocking. Some silly things that are written about us are painful. This supposed fact isn't painful. It's just wrong."

--Actress Anne Heche on rumors that she and lover Ellen DeGeneres are planning to have a baby, to the Orlando Sentinel, Nov. 18.

"It hasn't had a financial effect."

--Disney Chairman Michael Eisner on the Baptist boycott, to CBS-TV's 60 Minutes, Nov. 23. The Southern Baptist church targeted Disney, which owns ABC, due to Ellen Morgan's coming out and other gay-friendly actions.

"I had a ball. I love the idea of playing around with one's public persona."

--Actress Emma Thompson on her role in the Nov. 19 episode of Ellen, in which she plays herself as an alcoholic closeted lesbian who is really from Dayton, Ohio, and picked up her British accent from watching Julie Andrews movies.

"Let's go out and terrify some Baptists!"

--British actress Emma Thompson, playing herself on the Nov. 19 episode of Ellen, as she prepares to out herself as a lesbian during a televised awards ceremony. The Southern Baptist church is boycotting Disney, which owns ABC, in part due to Ellen Morgan's coming out.

"I will be the first to admit that last year when we did the coming-out episode ... I assured them [ABC and Disney] that the next year would not be the Gay Ellen Show. But I do feel a responsibility now to be honest with the character. ... There are kids that are beaten up, killed, who commit suicide because they're gay, and that happens from thinking there is something wrong with it. I am becoming a bit more of an activist."

--Ellen DeGeneres on Barbara Walters' "Ten Most Fascinating People" TV special, Dec. 2.

"Fabulous!"

--Director Clint Eastwood on his relationship with gay drag queen The Lady Chablis who plays herself in his new film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, to Reuters Nov. 20.

"I don't know if this is the worst country in the world to be gay, but it certainly is the most vocally homophobic."

--Keith Goddard, head of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, as quoted by the Salt Lake Tribune, Nov. 21. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has aggressively denounced homosexuals on numerousoccasions. Meanwhile, former President Canaan Banana is on trial for allegedly sexually assaulting 11 men during his presidency.

"The people that I really relate to are not straight people. It's just the way I am. I'm more comfortable [around gay people]. I don't know why. Although I'm straight, I have a mixture of friends -- they're straight, they're not straight, they're this or that."

--Singer Cyndi Lauper to Chicago's Outlines, Nov. 19.

"No."

--1970s disco diva Gloria Gaynor ("I Will Survive") to Chicago's Outlines Nov. 19 when asked, "You have such a large gay following. Has that ever come in conflict with your beliefs as a Christian?"

"We are 15 years into the AIDS epidemic, and I have been asked my status by prospective partners only twice. Since testing positive, I have made a point of disclosing my status to any potential partner; each one told me that I was the first person to do so. Each believed that if he practiced safe sex, there would be no need to know. I practiced safe sex. There is no such thing as safe sex."

--From a commentary by Alan J. Mayer in the Nov. 15 New York Times.

"Much as I think gays should have the same rights as heterosexuals, I want something better for the world than marriage. I would like to reach for something higher. We need ritual for sure, we want ways to honor extended family, family of choice, commitment to love and union, but I don't really want to see it fashioned after marriage that has traditionally been about ownership of property and children."

--Lesbian singer Holly Near in an interview with Atlanta's Etcetera magazine, Nov. 21.

"When I came out [in the music scene], the gay community were the ones who supported me the most, and they're now my main group. I think they appreciated that I wasn't trying to shout like other dance divas, I was just being myself. ... I know a lot of gay people identify with 'Gypsy Woman.' A lot of gay people still come up to me and tell me about how their family deserted them and are angry with them because they're gay."

--Dance diva Crystal Waters to Atlanta's Etcetera magazine, Nov.21.

"What I remember about Judy [Garland] -- and I admired hertremendously -- she was brilliant, kind and, you know, she was grabbing onto my hand with cold, cold hands because she was frightened [while we performed]. I wasn't frightened when I was 21; I'm more frightened now. There's more to live up to. How do I fulfill your fantasy of me? ... I don't want to disappoint people. I used to [worry] more before I did concerts, and I thought, well, they hear me on record where you perfect everything. When you go out and sing live, you sing live and you could have flaws and imperfections [but] in time I said: 'You know what? I love the flaw. I love the imperfections. There is no such thing as perfection.'"

--Barbra Streisand on The Rosie O'Donnell show, Nov. 21.

"I have never been on a date. I have not been single since I was 15!"

--Lesbian comic Suzanne Westenhoefer to Milwaukee's Q Voice, December issue.

"The most pressing issue in the world today is ... is Candace Bergen gay?"

--Lesbian comic Suzanne Westenhoefer to Milwaukee's Q Voice, December issue.

"['Ellen'] is having your life for the very, very first time represented on television in a funny, regular sitcom on regular TV. Like, oh my god! It's very cool. I'm very proud of her."

--Lesbian comic Suzanne Westenhoefer to Miami's The Weekly News, Nov. 26 issue.

"Those of us taking action to monitor, de-track, and resist the emerging sex panic find ourselves increasingly at odds with mainstream gay efforts to present a sanitized vision of our people which has replaced butch/femme dykes with Heather and her two mommies and kinky gay men with domestic-partner wedding cakes. Can we not advocate for a pluralistic queer culture where we affirm everyone's right to self-determination in the ways they organize their sexual relations and construct their kinship patterns?"

--University of California at Berkeley instructor and gay activist Eric Rofes at the Sex Panic! town meeting during the NGLTF Creating Change conference in San Diego, Nov. 14.

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"Those of us standing up for sexual freedom are neither lost in a romanticized version of the golden age of the 1970s nor dick- hungry men who are selfishly seeking more power and more privilege. We have been condescendingly characterized as immature children who haven't grown up and need to get with the times, put our pricks back in our pants, and apply our energies to the real challenges facing our communities, like gays-in-the-military or gay marriage. Yet we believe that even a cursory look at the histories of our movement will show that sexual liberation has been inextricably bound together with gay liberation, the women's movement, and the emancipation of youth. Among the most effective ways of oppressing a people is through the colonization of their bodies, the stigmatizing of their desires, and the repression of their erotic energies. We believe continuing work on sexual liberation is crucial to social justice efforts."

--University of California at Berkeley instructor and gay activist Eric Rofes at the Sex Panic! town meeting during the NGLTF Creating Change conference in San Diego, Nov. 14.

"It's another high mark in an exceptional season of 'Ellen,' a show that was liberated from existential sitcom hell when its lead character, Ellen Morgan, came out of the closet in April. Unlike the majority of sitcoms on prime time, 'Ellen' has found a reason to exist, mining a territory -- the oh-so-serious way our culture faces sexual identity -- that's loaded with comic potential. Nearly every episode this season has found the writers cleverly making light of gay and lesbian life, as well as the sometimes awkward rapport between gays and straights. By holding nothing sacred, the show has yielded many a satisfying zinger."

--Boston Globe reviewer Matthew Gilbert's take on the Nov. 19 episode of Ellen.

"Babies are petite and adorable, but they really don't suit everyone's lifestyle. They're messy. They demand attention. They spit up on your shoes. Even worse, they grow up to be confused, acne-covered, angst-ridden teenagers who hate you. ... Baby obsession is a self-perpetuating cycle; now that the media keeps focusing on dykes with strollers, many unlikely lesbians who used to be perfectly content to spend their weekends renting videos, going to garage sales, and occasionally dressing as Drag Kings now feel compelled to shop for sperm donors instead."

--Syndicated gay-press advice columnist Ms. Behavior, in a November filing.