October 8th, 1997 to October 14th, 1997

Quotelines

by Rex Wockner and Tracy Baim

"HAS ANYBODY told [U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala] that she could be responsible for a lot of deaths? I'm not accusing her of that, because it's a pretty harsh accusation, but by not allowing it she's putting up a barrier." - Elizabeth Taylor, interviewed for the cover story in the November Poz, on her support of free needle-exchange programs to prevent the spread of AIDS. She was interviewed by gay writer Kevin Sessums.

"I think ["fag hag" is] a really horrible expression. I've had great friendships with men who happen to be homosexual." - Elizabeth Taylor.

"I'm not for marriage of any kind. ... At this point in time, I'm saying never [again to marriage]. Never again! I don't see why anybody of the same sex or the opposite sex in this day and age needs to get married. I was old-fashioned in that I always thought that I had to get married. But that's passé now, so I don't have to do that anymore." - Taylor.
"I loved [Montgomery Clift]. But I knew from A Place in the Sun that he was gay-probably even more than he did. And I helped him with it. Which is extraordinary because I was only about 16, and I didn't really know anything about it. I turned 17 during the filming of that movie. I really didn't know then what being a homosexual was. But I just knew ... well, I don't know how I knew ..." - Taylor, who also noted that despite rumors that James Dean was gay, she felt he had not made up his mind at the time of his death, at age 24.
"We love each other, Michael [Jackson] and I. That's all there is to say. Both of us had really strange childhoods. We have a lot in common that way. We love each other. And if nobody understands it-or doesn't dig it-then tough shit." - Taylor.
"Protease inhibitors, as well as they have done for people, are really only a temporary solution. An awful lot of the patient community, a lot of the agencies and a lot of government have gotten the impression that [AIDS is] over-that everything is fine and going to be fine. And there's really no biological reason to expect that. ... In San Francisco, the failure rate is up to 40-50 percent. Some people are shocked by that. Don't be shocked. It's wonderful that they have done as wonderful as they have. But the disease is not cured and it's not being irradiated. Over time, the biology says the drugs have to fail." - Project Inform founder Martin Delaney to Boston's Bay Windows.
"Your [New York Press'] 8/27 issue contains a piece by Joseph Carman, 'Special K Morning,' of rampant, unconscionable, homophobic hatred. He sees the Morning Party as 'an excuse for drug-enhanced, muscle-bound sissies to act like teenaged girls.' We, obviously, see things differently. We see this event, the oldest annual AIDS fundraiser in existence, as an occasion to pay tribute to dead friends and salute those who are living with AIDS. We see it as an event that grew out of our community's concern and compassion for its own and many others. We see it as a creative celebratory ritual of community bonding in the midst of unspeakable loss. We see it as a chance to reach gay men with vital educational messages about safer sex and the dangers of recreational drug use. We see it as an event where thousands of gay men can enjoy themselves safely and where the few who disregard our warnings against drug use were removed from the dance floor and taken away. ... We encourage and welcome discussion of the event and of everything we do by those who care about the lives and well-being of gay men. New York Press has disgraced itself with the publication of an abhorrent defamation of gay men. It is your readers, and not the deer on Fire Island, that should be running for cover." - Letter to the editor of New York Press from Gay Men's Health Crisis Executive Director Mark Robinson. A response from the article's author follows...
"It sounds as if someone precariously allowed his own Prozac prescription to lapse. As for the Morning Party, yes, we do see things quite differently. Having lost far too many friends to AIDS, I would love to see a 'creative, celebratory ritual of community bonding.' The Morning Party in its current circuit-party format is hardly that. The partygoers are too fucked up on ecstasy, crystal meth, special K, cocaine and whatever else to know what the hell they are celebrating-or mourning, for that matter. Ironically, 10 years ago the GMHC Morning Party was a wonderful fundraising event. Persons with AIDS could gather on the beach for coffee at a reasonable hour, and people donated money toward a worthy cause. Now it is an A-list circuit orgy, where the participating gay men couldn't care less about your drug and safer sex advice, because they are there to do exactly the opposite. GMHC should stop sponsoring this stupid, irresponsible party and find another way to raise money. Now, about the accusation that I am 'homophobic.' You might want to avoid trivializing that term by saving it for people who truly hate gays and lesbians like, say, Jesse Helms, Phyllis Schlafly, or Jerry Falwell. The last time I checked, I still had a strong desire to suck cock, listen to Maria Callas CDs, read Walt Whitman and define myself as a GWM top with a flair for floral arrangement. So lighten up, Mary ... I mean Mark." - Joseph Carman, author of New York Press' "Special K Morning," in response to GMHC's Robinson.
"As the gay sensibility begins to collapse, a tremendous amount of nostalgia is generated among certain homosexual purists who want to protect their ethnic heritage from cooptation, from the pillaging of grave robbers. They cling sentimentally to relics of their history like curators and archaeologists bent on salvaging indigenous subcultural rituals from their destruction at the hands of careless tourists. Sentimentalization is a symptom of the subculture's decline. It represents the wistful longings of a group witnessing the sunset of a sensibility, seeking to intervene in its preservation long after the irreversible process of its absorption by straight society has been set in motion." - Daniel Harris' new book The Rise and Fall of Gay Culture.

"There is public and there is public. A gay pride march down Fifth Avenue, which presents itself as sending a message to the public, is one thing; the dense underbrush of the Central Park Ramble at midnight, a place to which people go precisely because they wish to do certain things out of public view, is something else entirely. What people do in the latter sort of 'public' venue, as long as they're not hurting anyone else, is a matter of total indifference to me and should be, I think, to everybody else. There does indeed seem to be a new wave of police harassment of gay people for sex in parks and other such places of late. I've seen such harassment firsthand this summer at Jones Beach on Long Island. ... I regard the police actions in these cases as despicable. Let nobody be mistaken as to where I stand on this ugly business." - Gay writer Bruce Bawer in e-mail to this column.
"A growing number of negative or untested men also seem to be barebacking - even with partners they know are positive. What can be done? Well, here's one option: Get really shocked and talk about how horrifying it is. This does no good for the poor fuckers at risk, of course, but the nice thing about being shocked and horrified is that you don't have to care. As long as you focus on how scandalous and outrageous the trend is, you can always say you're doing your part. You are taking a moral stand. Unlike some people." - Journalist Michael Warner writing in the September issue of POZ magazine.
"I am determined not to spend the rest of my life encaged in, and often immobilized by, fear of sex, death and disease. I am sick and tired of AIDS. That doesn't mean I'm going to throw out my condoms. I won't. But I will try damn hard to understand, and not pass judgment on, those who do." - Sean Strub, publisher of Poz magazine.

Send us your feedback!

Site development donated by Benchmark Online Productions.
Web space provided by SUBA.