18 ▼ January 3. 1897 ▼ ju s t out
Q uotable Q uotes
Continued from page 17
closeted person!... She’s been pulling this shit
for years. She plays gay for large gay audiences
and the rest of the time remains conspicuously
silent.... Everyone I know, gay and straight,
knows Lily [Tomlin] is gay.”
— Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin,
to The Village Voice. Maupin said he agreed to
write the narration for the film (based on Vito
Russo’s classic book about homosexuality in
the movies) with the understanding that Tomlin,
who fought to get the film made and narrates it,
would publicly come out of the closet.
“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.... I am
not a lesbian! I wish they’d stop saying it. I have
a daughter, for God’s sake. What do they mean
by this? They write this shit and one day I’m
gonna have to talk to my daughter.... Please, I’m
so pissed off right now. Excuse me.”
—Singer Whitney Houston,
to Entertainment Weekly
“1 don’t know why anyone cares
[if I’m gay], and 1 don’t know if it
matters or not. I just, uh, I don’t, it’s,
you know, the whole aspect of com­
ing out. I mean, there is a whole peo­
ple, you know, who are gay [who]
have decided that it can be that
whole thing about calling people out
and you have to share that, because
there needs to be an equality and a
lack of prejudice, and you need to
have a voice, so, I mean, it’s impor­
tant, but I’m not involved in those
dynamics and I have no point of
view on it.”
—Actor Keanu Reeves,
to USA Today
"I’ve wondered what my sexuality might be,
but I’ve never wondered whether it was accept­
able or not. Anyway, who really cares whether
I’m gay or straight?”
—Pop singer George Michael, to Britain’s
Big Issue magazine
“So many people are gay or go both ways. I
don’t care. I don’t want to hear about it.... I don’t
go for this outing business. If someone is gay,
that’s their business, and they should have the
right to protect their privacy about it.”
—Richard Nixon, according to Monica
Crowley’s book Nixon Off the Record
“What beat me was more homosexual money
than in any race in history, including from a
group called Lesbians for Motherhood.”
—Ousted Orange County, Calif., Congress­
man Bob Dornan, to The Wall Street Journal.
Doman, strongly anti-gay, lost to gay-friendly
Loretta Sanchez by a few hundred votes.
“They have stolen marriage. [This is now] the
central moral issue of our civilization.”
don't know
why anyone
cares [if I'm
gay], and I
don’t know if
it matters or
not.
“/
— Actor
Keanu Reeves
“Any garbage rumors about any
aspect of his personal life are just
that, garbage. This is someone who was inter­
viewed once on the Today show [in 1988] in
front of his 14-year-old son and asked by a
sleazy reporter if it was true he was gay. It
wasn’t true then, it isn’t true now, and even rais­
ing the issue is demeaning to him and to the
political process.”
— Bob Dole’s communications director, John
Buckley, on the rumors that vice-presidential
nominee Jack Kemp is a closeted homosexual
“1 married Peter Allen, and he didn’t tell me he
was gay.... Everybody knew but me! And I
didn’t find out until I found out. And I found
out...let me put it this way: I’ll never surprise
anybody coming home again as long as I live. I
call first.”
—Liza Minnelli, to The Advocate
“I don’t mind straight people as long as they
act gay in public.”
—T-shirt worn by Chicago Bulls transvestite
Dennis Rodman during a network-TV interview
—Traditional Values Coalition head the Rev.
Lou Sheldon, following the Hawaii same-sex
marriage ruling
G overnment at W ork
“Just because.”
—New Zealand Justice Minister Doug
Graham, when asked why he is opposed to
same-sex marriage
“[Colorado’s] Amendment 2 classifies homo­
sexuals not to further a proper legislative end but
to make them unequal to everyone else. This
Colorado cannot do. A State cannot so deem a
class of persons a stranger to its laws.
Amendment 2 violates the Equal Protection
Clause [of the U.S. Constitution], and the judg­
ment of the Supreme Court of Colorado is
affirmed. It is so ordered.”
—From the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark
6-3 ruling that smashed Colorado’s voter-passed
constitutional amendment banning civil-rights
protections for gay men and lesbians
“The sexual orientation of parents is not in and
of itself an indicator of parental fitness.... The
sexual orientation of parents does not automati­
cally disqualify them from being good, fit, lov­
ing or successful parents.... The sexual orienta­
tion of parents is not in and of itself an indicator
of the overall adjustment and development of
children.... Gay and lesbian parents and same-
sex couples can provide children with a nurtur­
ing relationship and a nurturing environment
which is conducive to the development of happy,
healthy and well-adjusted children.”
—From Judge Kevin Chang’s ruling in the
landmark Hawaii same-sex marriage case
“Old or young, healthy as a horse or a person
with a disability that hasn’t kept you down, man
or woman, Native American, native-born, immi­
grant, straight or gay, whatever, the test [for
acceptance by others] ought to be: I believe in
the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the
Declaration of Independence. I believe in reli­
gious liberty, I believe in freedom of speech, and
I believe in working hard and playing by the
rules.”
— Bill Clinton, in his speech accepting the
Democratic nomination for president
“I believe strongly that what we are dealing with
here is the defining civil rights issue of this
decade.... What are you trying to protect hetero­
sexual marriages from? There isn’t a limited
amount of love in Iowa. It isn’t a nonrenewable
resource. If Amy and Barbara or Mike and Steve
love each other, it doesn’t mean that John and
Mary can’t. Marriage licenses aren’t distributed
on a first-come, first-served basis here in Iowa.
Heterosexual couples don’t have to rush out and
claim marriage licenses now, before they are all
snatched up by gay and lesbian couples.
Heterosexual unions are and will continue to be
predominant, regardless of what gay and lesbian
couples do. To suggest that homosexual couples
in any way, shape or form threaten to undermine
the stability of heterosexual unions is patently
absurd. And I know, you’ll say: ‘What about the
gay agenda?’ Well, just as there turned out to be
no Bolsheviks in the bathroom back in the
1950s, there is no gay agenda in the 1990s. There
is, however, a strong, well-funded anti-gay agen­
da, and we have an example of its efforts here
before us today.”
—From a speech delivered on the floor of the
Iowa House by state Rep. Ed Fallon in opposi­
tion to legislation prohibiting recognition of
same-sex marriages performed in other states
“Socialists, Beef Club, UFO Club, Hispanic
Club, Key Club, Native American Club, Human
Rights Club, CrazE Club, Young Democrats,
Bowling Club, Highland Film Critics,
Highland’s Young Poet Society, Ethnic Alliance,
Hat Club for Men and Women, RAOHH
(Reggae Ambassadors), Sabotage, UFO
(Ultimate Frisbee Organization), Advancement
of Hispanic Students, Meat Club, Nordburg
Club, Simpsons Club, LaCrosse Club, Ski and
Board Shafters, Star Wars Club, Builders Club,
Chinese Checkers Club, Environmental Club,
Fencing Club, Funk Dance Club, Gamers Club,
HIS Club (Bible-study club), International Club,
Latino Pride Club, Multi-Cultural Club, Outdoor
Club, Paintballers Club, Pep Club, Polynesian
Club, Students Against Drunk Driving, Students
of the Orient, Vision Society, Young
Republicans.”
— High-school clubs banned by the Salt Lake
City Board of Education after it determined that
that was the only way to legally eradicate a new
gay and lesbian student club
P et P eeves
“It really bothers me when I see people doing
my mother in drag. I mean, just imagine if you
saw people doing that with your mother.”
—Cher’s lesbian daughter, Chastity Bono,
in Just Out
“I would never sing “Over the Rainbow.” I go
berserk when I hear people sing that song. It
belongs to Judy.”
—Liza Minnelli, to London’s Gay Times
“It’s these propaganda queens who are really
hurting us. These people who put out this lie that
we’re exactly the same [as heterosexuals] and
that we’re just straight people who fuck our own;
that is just not true!”
— Kids in the Hall's Scott Thompson,
to the San Francisco Bay Times
“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 o f vision, they're
old enough for me!"
l 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
ofRuPaul is just a fabulous, eye-popping celebrity
package designed to work well in front o f the camera.
—RuPaul
— Com ic Lea D cLuria