Quotelines

by Rex Wockner and Tracy Baim

"I must say, the emphasis on identifying the killer of designer Gianni Versace and four other men with the label 'gay serial killer' seems wrong to me. He may be gay and he may be a serial killer, but one doesn't find epithets describing other alleged murderers in religious, sexual or ethnic terms. We don't read about 'Jewish serial killers' or 'African American serial killers' or 'poor-white-trash serial killers.'" - Liz Smith in her L.A. Times column July 22.

"In the eyes of colonial lawmakers, desperate for a new generation of workers, the most dangerous form of waste was spilling the male 'seed' of human reproduction instead of planting it where it might grow. ... So sodomy, usually vaguely defined, was a capital offense. And men were executed for it. The object wasn't to forbid homosexuality but the non-procreative expenditure of semen. (With the possible exception of New Haven, no colony threatened the death penalty for female-female sex.) ... As ... Jonathan Ned Katz explains with extraordinary documentation in his Gay/Lesbian Almanac, sex with little girls was condemned not as child abuse but as non-procreative. Sex with animals was condemned as 'not properly procreative,' Katz says, adding that colonists feared it might yield some half-human monstrosity. - Lesbian columnist Deb Price.

"What did Ellen DeGeneris ask Kathy Lee Gifford? Can I be Frank with you?" - Internet joke.

"Oprah Winfrey issued a statement saying that even though she appeared on the Ellen coming-out episode, she's not gay. Meanwhile, Ellen DeGeneres issued a statement that even though she appeared on Oprah, she's not Black." - Talkshow host Conan O'Brien.

"Of course I saw it! Every self-respecting lesbian saw it. I think it was very well done. There was nothing that I would have changed about it. Hopefully, the writing will continue to be excellent. Now they can be free and not try to force something. It was very educational, I think, for straight America and feeling good for the gay community." - Tennis champ Martina Navratilova on Ellen's coming-out episode, to Pittsburgh's Out newspaper.

"[Ellen Degeneres'] biggest problem will be dealing with the gay media. I just hope they leave her alone and give her some space. She's done her part. If she does nothing for the rest of her life for the gay community, she's done her part. We should all be so lucky to do as much. So she doesn't owe anybody anything." - Navratilova.

"I did a show last night and I polled my audience. They all think [Ellen DeGeneres' girlfriend Anne Heche] is a gold digger, but I don't. Why can't someone look across a room and fall in love with a woman even if they've never had a lesbian affair before? We've done such a great job of convincing everyone that we're condemned to be born with this gay gene and so forth, but there's a great deal of fluidity and change in that." - Comedian Kate Clinton to San Francisco's Bay Times, May 29.

"I don't feel one way or the other about it [the coming out of Anne Heche, Ellen DeGeneres' lover]. She was the best person for the part [as my romantic interest in our upcoming movie]. She's still the best person for the part. I'm really looking forward to working with her. She's a very talented actress. I have no problem with her." - Harrison Ford to Oprah.

"Darling, I love you - will you be my reciprocal beneficiary?" - Hawaiian lesbians and gays are popping the question and lining up to apply for the state's brand new domestic-partnership plan, reports NewsPlanet.

"While everyone else gets to go to the buffet line, gays will now be allowed to go to the salad bar. They're still not getting the full buffet, but at least they're getting a partial meal." - Hawaii state Sen. Scott Matsunaga on the island's new reciprocal-beneficiaries law for couples who cannot get married.

"Birdcage I couldn't watch. Because first of all, I don't like the remaking of any great movies. ... And I don't think there's anything brave about straight men playing drag queens. I hate to see straight men playing drag queens to tell you the truth. You know, the cutting edge of drag is long gone, only because now it's family-friendly. I think families should run for their lives when they see a drag queen, not cuddle up to them. I like different kinds of drag queens. Psycho drag queens. Drag queens with chain saws." - Filmmaker John Waters to Ohio's Stonewall Journal, June issue.

"We have to make a distinction between believers and unbelievers. From a Buddhist point of view, men-to-men and women-to-women is generally considered sexual misconduct. From society's viewpoint, mutually agreeable homosexual relations can be of mutual benefit, enjoyable and harmless. ... Even with your own wife, using one's mouth or the other hole is sexual misconduct. Using one's hand, that is sexual misconduct." - Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama speaking to reporters in San Francisco June 10.

"I didn't have sex until I was about 23. And then I didn't stop. Now, though, I'm very picket fence. ... I love promiscuity - but why should I sabotage my life? ... The first gay person I saw on TV was a hero of mine, Liberace. He was what every straight person wants to think gay people are like - so camp, not at all threatening. ... I never go to discos now. I'd feel like the queen mother if I went, I'm so old. I'd rather go to an antique show or read a book." - Elton John to Rolling Stone July 10.

"My parents are very supportive of me. God, I generally don't like to go into personal issues, I'm pretty private. I was never in the closet, anyway, but I think that, within a family that's heterosexual, you're always going to be an outsider if you're gay. I don't think it's easy to grow up gay anywhere, especially with the amount of fear and uncomfortableness that surrounds sexuality, let alone homosexuality. It's painful. But I think we've made some big strides now, we don't have to apologize for being gay. I believe we were created this way by God." - Jason Gould, son of Barbra Streisand and Elliot Gould, to London's Gay Times, July issue.

"I have more fun in this parade than I do in any of the others." - San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown to KOFY-TV June 29 during the gay-pride parade.

"This Ellen thing's got me all in a twist. I feel like if you take this quest for visibility to its logical extreme and we end up on network TV and in every other book, people don't have the same need for this rich subculture that we've built. I don't think young lesbians have the same need to go out and find their own culture now that they can turn on ABC and see Ellen. That's kind of sad to me, even though in one way it's progress. It's sad because I like being on the margins. I think you have a richer kind of life that way. I don't want to see queer life turned into a commodity on network TV." - Dykes To Watch Out For cartoonist Alison Bechdel to Los Angeles' Lesbian News.

"I saw Larry Kramer once in a bookshop, and I hid behind the books. He was so fierce." - Gay writer/celebrity Quentin Crisp, 88, to The New York Times June 12.

"Quentin Crisp has never fought for us or for the cause. He's been fighting for himself, for the right to wear a strange outfit down the street. I actually find him embarrassing, because the world, which doesn't see gay men, thinks he's the representative gay man, which makes it harder for us." - Kramer, asked by the Times for a response.

"I used to fight with my daddy and my mama about the stuff I wore. I wasn't doing it to be trashy. I was doing it 'cause I didn't feel right just being ordinary. It was almost like being gay. It's a good thing I was born a woman, 'cause I'da damn sure been a drag queen if I hadn't. I can't get flamboyant enough." - Dolly Parton to Out.

"Yeah, I'm in love [with Leisha Hailey, singer in the pop band The Murmurs]. They [The Murmurs] are young and unjaded. Working with them [producing songs] really helped me get my shit together and recover my lust for making music." - k.d. lang to the Sydney Morning Herald.

"If I am typecast [from playing gay roles recently], then I am. I don't have any illusions about it. My feeling is that if I only get to play gay characters from now on, then that's really fine by me. Gay characters, contrary to popular opinion, are not all the same." - Gay My Best Friend's Wedding star Rupert Everett to the New York Post.

"Using the same principle that caused the Supreme Court to rule unanimously that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional, a Brooklyn federal judge has said that the Pentagon's policy on gays is illegal. ... [Those] defending the separate rules for homosexuals, including the Clinton Justice Department, are likely to fall back on the argument used to defend every bad policy the military has ever had: The 'morale and cohesion' of military units. Judge Nickerson dismisses 'cohesion' as 'a euphemism' that is an excuse to give in to prejudice. ... When the Army was segregated racially, 'morale' and 'cohesion' were cited by generals as reasons to keep it that way. But President Truman overruled them ... ." - Syndicated columnist Carl T. Rowan.

"The Baptists aren't upset about the role Disney has played in rearing a generation of girls to look upon themselves as pretty little future wives, just waiting for a prince to rescue them? Nope. They're upset that the company is giving out health insurance too freely. Too many gays and lesbians, in the minds of these Baptists, are getting the likes of annual teeth cleanings and Pap smears. ... The Baptist Convention is boycotting not because it believes Disney treats some group or individual badly, but because they think the company treats a group of individuals too well. ... The boycott is not about easing miserable conditions at overseas factories. It's not about shaming highly profitable companies for laying off loyal employees. It's not about shunning a movie that spreads hateful stereotypes or ugly untruths. In a world of sin and suffering, they're upset that one group of people isn't suffering enough. ... They are boycotting ABC not just because they love Jesus more than entertainment, but because they love the parts of the Bible that preach against homosexuality more than they love the parts that preach against hate, or gluttony, or gossip, or working on Sunday, or women cutting their hair. ... They are not boycotting Wal-Mart for doing business on Sunday, in direct violation of one of the Ten Commandments. Does anyone really think that Jesus is worried that too many people are getting health-care coverage?" - Louisville Courier-Journal columnist Beverly Bartlett