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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 3, 1997)
jus« o u t T Jan u ary 3 . 1 9 9 7 ▼ 17 . • .v .v .v .v .* Savor the queer and the quotable: the remarks and ripostes uttered during the past year by friends, foes, wannabes and wafflers O ut U of the C loset "ust by being out you’re doing your part. It’s like recycling. You’re doing your part for the environment if you recycle; 1 you’re doing your part for the gay movement if you’re out.” —Tennis champ Martina Navratilova, to the San Francisco Bay Times j “This sweet little blond girl [from The Sonny and Cher Show] turned out to be a big dyke. There’s something wonderful about that, because that’s life.” —Chastity Bono, to USA Today “For so long I was hoping it wasn’t true [that you were a lesbian], and then when it was true, I just felt I had done something wrong. ‘If I had been a better mother,’ all of the stupid things that people from Ohio are supposed to feel, not mothers who are Cher, who have lots of gay friends and all that shit. As far as I was con cerned. I really wasn’t supposed to feel that way, because it wasn’t liberal of me at all. It wasn’t really who I thought I was, but it didn’t make any difference. Those were my feelings, and even though I am not very proud of them, that is what it was for me; that was my experience, and I cannot try to lessen it by pretending that it wasn’t. Nor am I ashamed of it. I was surprised by it. The reason I am not ashamed by it is that I was in so much pain about it, and I don’t really know why. But it was genuine, unbelievable pain.” —Cher, in an Advocate interview with her lesbian daughter, activist-columnist Chastity Bono “I’m an openly gay trailer-trash Mexican. How could they not love me?” — Ice-skating national champion Rudy Galindo ‘To a large segment of our society, gay people are viewed as sexual outlaws.... God forbid a straight person should acknowledge that there are pleasures associated with their anus. That’s a big, big door that people don’t want to open.” — News Radio actor Phil Hartman, to Los Angeles magazine knew that he was meant to be with a man and not a woman, and I discussed it with him. I intro duced him to some really nice young guys.” —Elizabeth Taylor, to The Advocate “This is the best day of my life, really. I feel a tremendous burden lifted. It’s a relief. I’m being totally honest about myself to friends and fami ly. It feels wonderful.” —U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), announc ing that he is gay in order to pre-empt being outed by The Advocate. He was targeted after he voted for the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act. “The gay label doesn’t really bother me, as long as it’s just not something that is restrictive. I just don’t think one should live one’s life as a gay man. I don’t think that sexuality necessarily implies a lifestyle package that comes with it.” —The Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant, to The Washington Blade “I was 18 or 19 when I helped [actor Mont gomery Clift] realize that he was homosexual, and I barely knew what I was talking about. I was a virgin when I was married and not a world expert on sexuality. But I loved Monty with all my heart and just knew that he was unhappy. I “I’m sort of a gay success story, a very inspi rational one. What happened to me is exactly the opposite of what closeted people fear; They think they’ll lose everything if they come out. This did not happen to me at all. In fact, every thing came back tenfold.” —Rocker Melissa Etheridge, to The Advocate “I feel a tremendous burden lifted. It s a relief Vm being totally honest about myself to friends and family. It feels wonderful. “I’ve always been openly gay. It would never occur to me to behave otherwise.” —Ringling Bros, and Bamum & Bailey cir cus Ringmaster Eric Michael Gillet, to Atlanta’s Etcetera magazine “The femme ones. The long-haired, beautiful babes. And young, young, young! I always say that if they’re old enough to be in my Field of vision, they’re old enough for me!” —Comic Lea DeLaria, when asked by Cleveland’s Gay People’s Chronicle, “What kind of girl gets your attention?” “I just wish more of my fellow queers would come out sometimes. It’s nice out here, you know?” —Elton John, accepting a Distinguished Achievement Award from Elizabeth Taylor at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center’s 25th anniversary blowout "I do not impersonate women. How many women do you know who march around in 7- inch heels, 3-foot wigs and skin-tight outfits? Women don’t wear that, drag queens wear that! The public persona of RuPaul is just a fabulous, eye-popping celebrity package designed to work well in front of the camera.” —RuPaul, to Chicago’s BLACKlines N ot O ut of the C loset “She’s a lesbian, that’s what I’m here to talk about!” —Outing advocate and gay journalist Michelangelo Signorile, shouting at U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), at a book signing in New York City. Mikulski and Mary Louise Oates co-authored a mystery entitled Capitol Offense. “I feel profoundly disappointed and slightly used. My feeling was the narrator should be an openly gay person or a sympathetic straight per son. Instead, I have to endure the cruel irony of a — U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe Continued on page 18