Big Gay Frat House Blog

Thirty years

June 5 will mark the 30th anniversary of the first published reports of a new disease then identified as striking gay men, a disease that would later be known as AIDS.

In the mid-1980s, San Francisco was spending more on AIDS-related programs than every other city and the federal government combined. Here's a moving ad from the San Francisco AIDS Foundation about San Francisco's response to the epidemic.

From Joe My God via David Mixner.

Notable Quotables

I swear, I have a photographic post coming soon! But the quotes keep piling up before I can get to anything else.

 

"I want us to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it. All of us -- we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children's expectations."

-- President Barack Obama in the Arizona shootings memorial, remembering 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, one of the victims of the Arizona shootings

"I like my benediction like I like my coffee. CHRISTIAN!"

-- The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, mocking pundits who questioned the presence of a Native American prayer at the memorial service for the Arizona shooting victims

"To date, no man has succeeded in filling the conservative standard-bearer's [Ronald Reagan] legendary boots. Well, maybe it's time to swap boots for pumps."

-- Matt Barber of the late Jerry Falwell's Liberty Council, backing conservative whack-job Rep. Michelle Bachmann's (R-MN) potential run for President. Bachmann makes Sarah Palin sound rational and cogent.

"The hatred directed at her is mindless, it is baseless, it is utterly irrational, and it is disturbing to an alarming degree. When we look into the face of the unvarnished and seething meanness focused on Ms. Palin, we are looking into the face of evil. We are looking into the face of Satan himself, who is the ultimate source of this vitriol and toxic hate."

-- American Family Association's Bryan Fischer, who apparently cannot conceive of secular reasons why some people might not like Sarah Palin

"I also want to work on marriage equality. I want to make sure that everyone in this country can be married to the people they love."

-- Senator Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) on "The View"

"Most importantly, to all the amazing kids that watch our show and the kids that our show celebrates, who are constantly told 'no' by the people in their environments, by bullies at school that they can't be who they are or have what they want because of who they are. Well, screw that, kids."

-- Opnly-gay actor Chris Colfer, accepting the Best Supporting Actor in a Television Program for his portrayal of the openly-gay character Kurt Hummel in "Glee"

"Now I'm really trying not to cry, but one of the best things, for all the kids who are watching tonight, who don't understand that Kurt Hummel is a character... they saw him win and that's great."

-- Chris Colfer in a post-Golden Globe win interview

"I'd like to quash this ridiculous rumor going around that the only reason The Tourist was nominated was so the HFPA could hang out with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. That is rubbish. That is not the only reason. They also accepted bribes."

-- Actor Ricky Gervais while emceeing the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Golden Globes Awards

"Now I will have to say that, if we don't have the same daddy, we're not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I'm telling you, you're not my brother and you're not my sister, and I want to be your brother."

-- Alabama Governor Robert Bentley (R), promising to be color-blind in how he governs but apparently not religiously-blind

"It is not the bill that [Republicans] would have written. It is not the bill that I would have drafted. But it is the law of the land and it is the platform, the fundamental platform, upon which all future efforts to make that system better, for that patient, for that family, will be based.... [The law] has many strong elements. And those elements, whatever happens, need to be preserved, need to be cuddled, need to be snuggled, need to be promoted and need to be implemented."

-- Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), urging GOP members of Congress to drop efforts to repeal health care reform legislation. Frist was an M.D. and surgeon before entering Congress.

"Today, here at Esquire -- and only at Esquire, because only Esquire has the guts to tell you this story -- we're going to tell you about a man you need to know a little better, maybe a lot better: a man named Roger Ailes. Maybe you've heard of Mr. Ailes. As the chairman and CEO of a well financed and admittedly antigovernment organization called Fox News, he made a reported $23 million in 2009, which, to do the math, was not just more money than you earned, it was more money than everyone related to you earned, combined, even if you count the sudden windfall that came your aunt Ida's way after she got five out of six in Powerball. Nice work if you can get it, Mr. Ailes -- especially when that 'work' consisted of nothing but advancing your own agenda at the expense of the president of the United States of America during a time of war."

-- Esquire magazine

"You know, people try to make it about black and white. He [Martin Luther King, Jr.] talked about equality for every man, every woman. We have a thing going on now -- people discriminating against homosexuality in this country. I love the homosexuality people. God bless the gay people. They are great people."

-- NBA legend turned sportscaster Charles Barkley during a pregame tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr.

"One of my favorite stories from the youth. As a boy my room with pictures of bodybuilders was fully paved. Oiled naked male body. This was voted the mom so worried that she asked one day our family doctor to look at that. 'Other boys hang pictures of women, and I do that!' She actually believed that I was gay. yes is not bad for them it was inconceivable at that time, however. But the doctor, a wise man, she has settled down. Everyone has idols, others would hang pictures of the Beatles, these were indeed men. 'Look at it this way, Mrs. Schwarzenegger: As an athlete, he certainly does not catch on with the drinking and smoking!' This has reassured them.The worry lines have remained."

-- Body builder, actor, and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an interview with an Austrian newspaper roughly translated by Google

"This is the most important case that I know I've ever had. It means so much to so many people... We're feeling the change of public opinion almost like flowers blooming in the spring you can almost see them growing, and it's so moving to see this happen."

-- Conservative attorney Ted Olsen, one of the lead attorneys seeking to overturn Prop 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California

"Our most conservative politicians -- as in Gavin Newsom -- would be considered a wacko liberal anywhere else. You tell a person like [Fox host] Bill O'Reilly that Gavin Newsom is a moderate and they think you're nuts. Nuts."

-- Former San Francisco Supervisor (and my distant cousin) Angela Alioto

"I also would have steered clear of politics. I'm grateful for the opportunities God gave me to minister to people in high places; people in power have spiritual and personal needs like everyone else, and often they have no one to talk to. But looking back I know I sometimes crossed the line, and I wouldn't do that now."

-- Reverend Billy Graham, a Southern Baptist evangelical minister who has had personal audiences with 12 U.S. Presidents dating back to Truman

"I had issues with that... but now, looking back when we were dating, [Jonathan Knight] was so much fun; we used to do facials together. He was so easy to talk to."

-- 80s pop star Tiffany, inadvertantly revealing that New Kids on the Block's Jonathan Knight is gay

"I'm so devastated. How can I not remember getting facials...? Tiff, please don't lose any sleep over it! I know you weren't being mean and I found it to be funny!"

-- NKOTB costar Jonathan Knight on Twitter, who apparently has been quietly out of the closet for 20 years despite a lack of an "I'm Gay!" headline in People Magazine 

"From the earliest days of our founding, America has been the story of ordinary people who dare to dream. That's how we win the future."

-- President Barack Obama in his Sate of the Union address

"Mr. President, you don't believe in the Constitution. You believe in socialism."

-- Rep. Paul Brown (R-GA), in the GOP response to the President's State of the Union Address

"But, as a statement of national aspiration, Obama's speech was serious and purposeful and even bracing. He managed to strike a blow for nerds everywhere by insisting that the nation should applaud not only the Super Bowl players but the science-fair winners -- and he was rewarded with a standing ovation. If he accomplishes nothing else in his life in politics, Obama might just yet make it not only acceptable, but actually cool, to be smart."

-- Todd Purdum in a Vanity Fair commentary about the State of the Union speech

Notable Quotables

(I know, the blog has been dominated a bit by Notable Quotables lately, but the quotes have been coming fast and furious. We'll get back to other fun things soon, including finishing up my countdown of Flickr Favorites. Also, many of these quotes relate to the assassination attempt against Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, but honestly, that's what's dominated the political discourse in the last few days. I would have held off for more variety, but the number of collected quotes was already getting unwieldy.)

 

"I mean, this is a situation where -- I mean, people don't -- they really need to realize that the rhetoric and firing people up and, you know, even things, for example, we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list. But the thing is that the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gunsight over our district. When people do that, they've gotta realize there's consequences to that action."

-- Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) in an interview with MSNBC several months before she was shot

"We never ever, ever intended it to be gun sights. It's surveyor's symbols."

-- Rebecca Mansour, a spokeswoman for Sarah Palin, denying that the cross hairs on Palin's website on 20 members of Congress, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords who was shot on Saturday, were intended as a violent symbol

"Remember months ago 'bullseye' icon used 2 target the 20 Obamacare-lovin' incumbent seats? We won 18 out of 20 (90% success rate;T'aint bad)"

-- A tweet from Sarah Palin after the 2010 elections, clearing not suggesting the cross hairs were surveyors symbols

"I think that it's irresponsible for us not at some point to address this kind of behavior and try to put a stop to it....When allegedly credible people who get up in front of cameras and microphones and say that they're not true, and try to enflame the public. When miilions of dollars are filtered into this country to buy very vitriolic ads and they don't have to be identified - the countries that they're coming from or they people that are donating them. I think it's time that we take a look at it. Free speech is free speech but it's not without consequences.

-- Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik following the assassination attempt against Rep. Giffords that left six people dead

"Even the most cursory perusal of rightwing radio, television, blogs and assorted punditry illustrates a profound distinction: in large measure, the right's overarching purpose is to stoke hatred of the left, of liberalism. The right's messaging infrastructure, meticulously constructed and refined over decades, promotes an image of liberals as traitors and America-haters, unworthy of their country and bent on destroying it. There is simply no comparable propaganda effort on the left."

-- Political and digital media consultant Peter Daou

"Although it appears that Jared Lee Loughner had nothing to do with mainstream conservatism or liberalism, can't we all agree to condemn violent, de-humanizing, or de-legitimizing rhetoric -- '2nd Amendment remedies,' 'Don't retreat, instead reload,' 'Gather your armies,' "facism/socialism," etc. -- aimed at our politicians and government institutions? In today's political climate, as we pointed out, opponents just don't disagree, they de-humanize each other; they just don't question those in power, they de-legitimize them; and we in the media just play along, giving attention to the extremes and the shiny metal objects. It's time for all of us to act more responsibly."

-- MSNBC editorial

"Through it all though, well meaning people on both sides of the ideological and partisan divide are not talking about the one thing that should be talked about -- a saving faith in Jesus Christ."

-- RedState's Erick Erickson, apparently arguing that Rep. Giffords' faith in Jesus is what saved her when she was shot in the brain. Giffords is Jewish.

"I told all of our guys, shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually. You don't have to do it with bombast. I hope the other side does that."

-- Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes, admitting the role his network played in ratcheting up rhetorical violence and all but admitting Fox News is a partisan network

"In fact, there is no balance -- none whatsoever. Only one side has made the rhetoric of armed revolt against an oppressive tyranny the guiding spirit of its grassroots movement and its midterm campaign. Only one side routinely invokes the Second Amendment as a form of swagger and intimidation, not-so-coyly conflating rights with threats. Only one side's activists bring guns to democratic political gatherings. Only one side has a popular national TV host who uses his platform to indoctrinate viewers in the conviction that the President is an alien, totalitarian menace to the country. Only one side fills the AM waves with rage and incendiary falsehoods. Only one side has an iconic leader, with a devoted grassroots following, who can't stop using violent imagery and dividing her countrymen into us and them, real and fake. Any sentient American knows which side that is; to argue otherwise is disingenuous."

-- New Yorker columnist George Packer, denouncing arguments that both the left and the right engage in violent rhetoric

"Anyone seeking to purchase such a weapon ought to raise at least as much suspicion as someone showing up at airport security with a few ounces of shampoo!"

-- Huffington Post columnist Craig Crawford, denouncing Arizona's lenient laws around purchasing semiautomatic weapons

"My wife is 6-foot-3 and weighs 300 pounds. If there is somebody that thinks they can control her, have at it. I have tried for 11 years and haven't been able to."

-- Tod Ozmon, who was forced to resign as Chief of Police for the town of Snyder, Oklahoma, after his wife posted nude pictures of herself on an adult website. The mayor and another council member resigned in protest of how Ozmon is being treated for a perfectly legal activity that he himself didn't even commit.

"The Christian community here is very uncomfortable that Leakey and his group want their theories presented as fact. Our doctrine is not that we evolved from apes, and we have grave concerns that the museum wants to enhance the prominence of something presented as fact which is just one theory."

-- Bishop Bonifes Adoyo, an evangelical leader in Kenya pressuring their national museum to remove a world-famous collection of fossils depicting human evolution

"If there’s one thing I want to remember, if there's one thing I want all of us to remember, it's that within each one of us, there are so many people. Porn is generous in this way -- it's a world of doubles. Girth Brooks is not really Girth Brooks, after all. He doesn’t even have sex with men off-screen. And the racist, homophobic, rich, white dad who works for the military also lets a stranger stay on his yacht and buys this stranger dinner and gives him French toast and a hug goodbye the next day. Is that what evil looks like? Is it really that kind?"

-- Gay porn actor Conner Habib

Notable Quotables

"He was just not the sort of person who would wind up in a landfill."

-- Bayard Marin, attorney John Wheeler III, a former Pentagon official who served in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, whose body was found in a landfill. Marin did not describe what sorts of people normally turn up in landfills.

"This is not a guy who would end up in landfill or be murdered."

-- Elizabeth Thorp, a board member of the Deafness Research Foundation, of which Wheeler had formerly been CEO, of John Wheeler's death, oddly echoing Bayard Marin's comments

"When marriage equality is the law in Rhode Island, we honor our forefathers who risked their lives and fortune in the pursuit of human equality. Rhode Island today must be as welcoming to all as [founder] Roger Williams intended it to be. Mark my words, these two actions will do more for economic growth in our state than any economic development loan."

-- Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee (Independent) in his inaugural address

"They are as close as two people with limited social skills can be."

-- An anonymous Democratic aide regarding the relationship between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

"We are about to witness the biggest fumble in the history of progressive politics in San Francisco, and the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of David Chiu. I will haunt you. I will politically haunt you.... It's on, like Donkey Kong."

-- Outgoing San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly to Board President David Chiu, denouncing him for supporting a more moderate mayoral candidate to replace Gavin Newsom who was recently elected California's Lt. Governor

"Despite all the wonderful references to Donkey Kong, we have engaged in a orderly transition of leadership."

-- San Francisco Supervisor David Chiu, following the Board of Supervisors' 10-1 vote to select Ed Lee as the City's interim mayor with Sup. Daly the only dissenting vote. The new Board of Supervisors will have to officially ratify the vote next week, as Mayor Gavin Newsom won't officially step down until the new board is sworn in.

"The last time a progressive sat in Room 200 -- upon Art Agnos' election in 1987 -- Donkey Kong actually was a popular arcade game and not a kooky political reference."

-- San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Heather Knight

"I think I have to do everything I can to make sure that the impact on the morale, retention, recruitment and battle effectiveness of the military is minimized as much as possible. It is a law and I have to do whatever I can to help the men and women who are serving, particularly in combat, cope with this new situation. I will do everything I can to make it work."

-- Senator John McCain (R-AZ), agreeing to help implement the repeal of DADT after fighting tooth and nail to prevent the repeal from passing

"The truth is that ending the exclusion of gay people from marriage does not change the 'definition' of marriage any more than allowing women to vote changed the 'definition' of voting."

-- Evan Wolfson, founder and executive director, Freedom to Marry

"The state of Hawaii has said that President Obama was born there. That's good enough for me."

-- House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), reacting to an outburst about President Obama's eligibility to be president from a birther in the House gallery

"She is too stupid to deserve an answer."

-- Author Gore Vidal, responding to reports that Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) claimed to have switched to the GOP after reading his novel Burr, which she claims is disrespectful of the founding fathers

"As much as I enjoy being naked for a good cause, I also just enjoy being naked. Period."

-- Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, who posed naked in Cosmopolitan magazine to raise awareness of testicular and prostate cancer

Notable Quotables

"I'm not exactly for the use of drugs, don't get me wrong, but I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot, that kinda thing it's just, it's costing us a fortune and it's ruining young people. Young people go into prisons, they go in as youths and come out as hardened criminals. That's not a good thing."

-- Televangelist Pat Robertson, advocating on his show, The 700 Club, that marijuana laws should be relaxed or repealed

"For decades we've been working alone as a community with the help of a few brave gay friendly allies in our efforts to crawl forward. Increasingly however, our straight allies are not just cheering from the sidelines, but they are putting a shoulder to the boulder. Whether it's Ted Olson, David Brock, or the high school students who see this as their generation's civil rights movement, the extra muscle is not just useful, it's a sign that while many battles may lie ahead, the war is won."

-- SF Bay Times columnist Ann Rostow

"I think the country's evolving. And I think you're going to see, you know, the next effort is probably going to be to deal with so called DOMA [Defence of Marriage Act]."

-- Vice President Joe Biden, predicting that just as the nation came around to accepting openly gay members of the military, they will inevitably also come around to accepting same sex marriage

"People who are promoting this could not care less about the military. They would like to destroy the military and so it's a win-win for them, either it works, which it won't, or it doesn't work and 'yay the military is wrecked.' When we're putting girls and gays in the military we are not taking the military seriously."

-- Conservative pundit Ann Coulter, claiming that liberals are using DADT to destroy the military

"I am always suspicious of those who claim to know so well what God wants, for it always seems to coincide with their own desires."

-- Suffragette Susan B. Anthony.

"It's an insult to [Obama's] mother and to his father, and I knew his mother and father; they were my friends, and I have an emotional interest in that. It's an emotional insult. It is disrespectful to the president; it is disrespectful to the office... There's no reason on earth to have the memory of his parents insulted by people whose motivation is solely political."

-- Hawaii Governor-elect Neil Abercrombie (D), who was a friend of President Obama's parents when Obama was born, denouncing birthers who believe the president's mother secretly went to Kenya right before he was born and then secretly returned with him

"Conservationists write me these nasty letters because I support an industry like this. They write me these nasty letters using their pretty little pencils on their pretty little stationery not realizing. Where do you think your pencil and your piece of paper came from, people? It came from a tree that was harvested."

-- Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, while taking a chainsaw to an Evergreen Timber tree on her reality television show

"We're going for dwarf training for a month. It's an adventure and I can't wait for it. I've never done a massive film like it."

-- James Nesbitt, one of the actors cast as a dwarf in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings prequel "The Hobbit." (Dwarf training?)

"We clearly made a mistake if we created the office lieutenant governor and wasted money if the lieutenant governor is not going to be here when the governor is out of state."

-- New Jersey state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D), complaining that Governor Chris Christie (R) and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno (R) were both out of the state when a major snowstorm hit, paralyzing the state

"What a bunch of filthy motherfuckers. You guys should get paid extra for this."

-- Palm Springs Police Chief David Dominguez after his cops arrested gay men in public sex entrapment sting operation

"GOProud isn't a pro-gay rights organization, they're an organization of gay quislings and useful idiots that help to window-dress the Republican party which is really still rabidly anti-gay to it's core. It's a little window dressing, a little gay window dressing, that allows them to appeal to moderates perhaps and independents as being less bigoted than the Republican party actually is."

-- Advice columnist Dan Savage on MSNBC

"I was just an actor who happened to be lucky enough to be in the right place, and it was the place where I met Matilda's father, and that is a lot. It was a lot. And it will be a lot for Matilda too, when she gets around to watching it. I will watch it with her, when she's ready. It is hard to imagine what that would feel like, but one day, yes, we will watch it together."

-- Actress Michelle Williams about eventually watching Brokeback Mountain with her daughter. Williams met the late Health Ledger, her daughter's father, on the set.

"The G-d of the Old Testament is the most aggressive motherfucker you could ever have the displeasure of being created by. He/She/It makes Zeus look like an affectionate pussycat."

-- VancouverMoose, a commenter on columnist Dan Savage's blog

"My nomination for headline of the year comes from the newspaper Roll Call, on July 18: 'McConnell Blasts Deficit Spending, Urges Extension of Tax Cuts.'"

-- New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, denouncing GOP hypocrisy about the deficit

"Any literate person could have opened that book and immediately found a mistake."

-- Professor Mary Miley Theobald, one of the historians who compiled a 10-page list of factual errors in a Virginia high school textbook, including claims that African Americans fought for the Confederacy in large numbers and completely omitting all references to slavery in discussions of the Civil War

"One hundred and fifty years later, it is hard to come to grips with the fact that we had four million people enslaved. They have a difficult time accepting that their ancestors were fighting to protect the institution of slavery. Yes, there were social factors. Yes, there were economic factors. Yes, there were political factors. But when you boil it all down, slavery was the major factor."

-- Robert Sutton, Park Services historian in Manassas, Virginia, regarding efforts 150 years later to minimize the role slavery played in the causes of the U.S. Civil War,

"Historians don't fight this battle anymore about what caused the war. It's slavery. The constitutional issues would not have caused the Civil War unless slavery had been attached to those debates. It was an extraordinarily important institution economically, historically, and politically. Without slavery, you wouldn't have had a civil war. Maybe we've done a bad job of communicating this.

-- James Marten, president of the Society of Civil War Historians and chairman of the history department at Marquette University in Wisconsin

"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus wass just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it."

-- Actor, comedian, and political satyrist Stephen Colbert

Notable Quotables

"I used to know a different John McCain, the guy who proposed comprehensive immigration reform with Ted Kennedy, the guy -- a conservative, to be sure, but an honorable one -- who refused to indulge in the hateful strictures of his party's extremists. His public fall has been spectacular, a consequence of politics -- he 'needed' to be reelected -- and personal pique. He's a bitter man now, who can barely tolerate the fact that he lost to Barack Obama.... He has made quite a show ever since of demonstrating his petulance and lack of grace."

-- New York Times columnist Joe Klein

"When confronted with anyone who holds my lack of religious faith in such contempt, I say, 'It's the way God made me.'"

-- Actor (and atheist) Ricky Gervais

"It's one thing to have a gay person in the abstract. It's another to see that person as part of a living, breathing couple. How would a gay presidential candidate have a celebratory kiss with his partner after winning the New Hampshire primary? The sight of two women kissing has not been as distressful to people as the sight of two men kissing."

-- Openly gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), commenting on issues (including DOMA) in response to former president Jimmy Carter's comments that the country is ready for an openly gay president

"The one target for us in two years is no longer extending the upper income tax credit for millionaires and billionaires, and scaling back what we had to do to get the compromise."

-- Vice President Joe Biden

"As an atheist, I see nothing 'wrong' in believing in a god. I don't think there is a god, but belief in him does no harm. If it helps you in any way, then that's fine with me. It's when belief starts infringing on other people's rights when it worries me. I would never deny your right to believe in a god. I would just rather you didn't kill people who believe in a different god, say. Or stone someone to death because your rulebook says their sexuality is immoral."

-- Actor Ricky Gervais

"I think people will see this [vote] as a celebration of our country. Passing this bill makes America stronger in every way, not just national security, but in our values. Frankly it's a boost of morale for the nation and will be remembered as a defining time when we said no to discrimination."

-- Outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) regarding the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

"I just don't remember it as being that bad. I remember Martin Luther King came to town, in '62. He spoke out at the old fairground and it was full of people, black and white."

-- Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (R), recalling his town's experiences with the Civil Rights movement and desegregation, perhaps not realizing that his experiences coming from a wealthy, politically powerful family might not have been universal.

"It is quite disturbing that the governor of the state would take an approach to the history of this state. It's beyond disturbing -- it's offensive that he would take that approach to the history of this state to many African-Americans who had to suffer as a result of the policies and practices of the Citizens Council."

-- Derrick Johnson, president of the Mississippi NAACP, offering examples disproving Gov. Haley Barbour's assertion that his town peacefully desegregated

"Nothing compares -- in anything I have ever done -- with passing the health care bill."

-- Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

"Our people sacrifice a lot for their country, including their lives. None of them should have to sacrifice their integrity as well. This is the right thing to do for our military, and I believe it is the right thing to do period."

-- President Barack Obama at the signing ceremony for the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

"It's to be protected against violent crimes driven by bigotry, it's to be able to get married, it's to be able to get a job, and it's to be able to fight for our country. For those who are worried about the radical homosexual agenda, let me put them on notice. Two down, two to go."

-- Congress Member Barney Frank (D-MA), publicly revealing the secret "Homosexual Agenda" at the signing ceremony for the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

"When it's all going to be said and done, Harry Reid has eaten our lunch. This has been a capitulation in two weeks of dramatic proportions of policies that wouldn't have passed in the new Congress."

-- Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC), harshly critical of fellow Republicans for breaking ranks during the lame duck session to vote for Democratic initiatives

"It's unbelievable. It's unprecedented. People have been told by the American voters that they've had enough of the 111th Congress, they'd like to have shut it down on November the 2nd. And still Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi march on throwing another pie in the face of the American people -- driving an agenda that's not supported by the American people."

-- U.S. Representative Steve King (R-IA), bitching that Democrats in Congress are actually (*gasp*) working rather than going on vacation for several months

"We are not doomed to endless gridlock."

-- President Barack Obama following the most productive lame duck session of Congress since World War II

"They should put Julie Taymor in jail for assault!"

-- Actor Adam Pascal on Facebook, referring to the Broadway producer of "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" following a series of serious on-stage accidents. Pascal has subsequently said that he was exaggerating to make a point.

"Obviously there are some people in the gay community who can be a little precious and need to lighten up."

-- Openly gay Air New Zealand flight attendant Will Coxhead, disagreeing with criticism that a humerous scene in a flight safety video he appeared in was homophobic

"The next time I get a ring from a man, I expect it will be for full, equal, American marriage."

-- Lt. Dan Choi on Twitter after receiving his West Point ring back from Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid, to whom he had given his ring. Reid promised to return the ring to Choi upon the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

Notable Quotables

"The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered. We know that. And, yes, there are certainly times when we aren't able to muster as much strength and patience as we would like. It's called being human. I have been sustained throughout my life by three saving graces: my family, my friends, and a faith in the power of resilience and hope. These graces have carried me through difficult times and they have brought more joy to the good times than I ever could have imagined."

-- Elizabeth Edwards, estranged wife of former Senator and presidential candidate John Edwards, in a farewell message on Facebook after deciding to discontinue treatment for cancer the day before she died

"I say luck is when an opportunity comes along and you're prepared for it."

-- Actor Denzel Washington

"I just think, if he caves on this, then I think that he's gonna have a lot of swimming upstream... He would then just be hoping and praying that Sarah Palin gets the nomination."

-- Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) regarding Obama's handling of GOP efforts to extend Bush-era tax cuts for Americans making over $250,000 a year

"Has it gotten better since AIDS decimated a generation of gay men? In San Francisco, certainly. But when America's signature cultural institution can be so easily bullied by bigots, it's another indicator that the angels Keith Haring saw on his death bed have not landed in Washington just yet."

-- New York Times columnist Frank Rich about homophoboc censoring of an art installation at The Smithsonian

"I mean, my feeling about John [Travolta] has always been that we know and we don't care. Look, I'm sorry that he's uncomfortable with it, and that's all I can say. It only draws more attention to it when you make that kind of legal fuss. Just leave it be."

-- Actress Carrie Fisher regarding rumors of John Travolta's alleged homosexuality

"We are teachers by our action and our way of being. When we come out of the closet, we choose what we love over societal pressure. Instead of living in fear, we pursue what's in our hearts. Similarly, when we choose to be porn stars, we express an amplified version of this great step: We choose, against all societal advice, to do publicly what we love and care about. This is a great lesson to everyone -- we are not afraid to choose what is forbidden, because to deny ourselves of what's in our hearts would be the real crime."

-- Gay porn star Conner Habib

"This guy -- I'm sorry, he's gonna be Speaker of the House, and he's not gonna invite me to his Christmas party -- but this guy has an emotional problem that every time he talks about anything that's not 'raise taxes' he cries. If this were a woman, if you saw Nancy Pelosi, who's been villified, and I'm not taking sides, if you saw her getting up and crying... I hope he's a good Speaker of the House, but he's got a problem."

-- Barbara Walters on The View about House Minority Leader and future Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH)

"Having a positive feeling is not the same as doing something positive."

-- Rachel Maddow, defending Baehner's tears but condemning his legislative actions

"If two people want to get married, it's their prerogative -- we hope. Everybody should be able to do what they want to do and be in the pursuit of happiness."

-- Singer Mariah Carey, expressing her support for marriage equality

"Step-by-step, we have realized that this issue of homosexuality has the same adverse and progressive elements as when we dealt with the race issue 50 years ago, or 40 years ago. So I would say that the country is getting acclimated to a president who might be female, who might, obviously, now, be Black, and who might be as well a gay person."

-- Former President Jimmy Carter

"I never thought I'd play a character who could inspire so many people. It's a good thing I've gone through so many of the same things Kurt is going through -- I definitely approach his character from a personal place."

-- Openly-gay actor Chris Colfer, recently nominated for a Golden Globe for his portrayal of openly-gay student Kurt Hummel in Glee

"After careful analysis of the comprehensive report compiled by the Department of Defense and thorough consideration of the testimony provided by the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the service chiefs, I support repeal of the 'don’t ask, don't tell' law."

-- U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), agreeing to vote on a stand-alone Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal introduced by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME). Last week she voted against allowing a vote against a Defense appropriations bill that included the same language.

"The [Family Research Council], in a booklet entitled Homosexual Activists Work to Normalize Sex With Boys, has claimed that 'one of the primary goals of the homosexual rights movement is to abolish all age of consent laws and to eventually recognize pedophiles as the 'prophets' of a new sexual order.' The American Family Association's Bryan Fischer wrote this year that '[h]omosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and 6 million dead Jews.' Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel, which was not listed by the SPLC but helped organize today's newspaper ad, describes relationships between gay men as 'one man violently cramming his penis into another man's lower intestine and calling it 'love.'' Officials of several, including the FRC, have called for criminalizing gay sex."

-- The Southern Poverty Law Center, defending its actions in listing the Family Research Council as a hate group

"I used to listen to Glenn Beck every day on the radio. He was the most talented radio personality of my entire generation...But you can move people into dangerous areas if you don't care about the truth in what you're saying."

-- MSNBC's Rachel Maddow

"To my friend who said that history would judge us poorly, I would submit if you would look thoroughly at history -- and I'm not saying it's cause and effect -- but when militaries throughout history of the greatest nations in the world have adopted the policy that 'fine for homosexuality to be overt' -- you can keep it private and control your hormones fine, if you can’t, that's fine too -- they’re toward the end of their existence as a great nation."

-- U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), speaking against the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell on the House floor. Check out Dan Savage's discussion about the misconception that the Roman Empire collapsed because of its acceptance of homosexuality.

Notable Quotables

"The rich are always going to say that, you know, just give us more money and we'll go out and spend more and then it will all trickle down to the rest of you. But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on."

-- Billionaire Warren Buffet, arguing that the Bush-era tax cuts for wealthy people should be allowed to expire

"This is a sad, sad reflection on our times, when people must feed off the carcasses of beloved stories from their youths -- just because they can't think of an original idea of their own, like I did with my Avengers idea that I made up myself."

-- Filmmaker and Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon regarding attempts to film a new Buffy movie without his involvement

"The lifting of the homosexual ban was a bit like Y2K. It was a non-event, and it continues to be a non-event."

-- Major General Simon Willis (retired), former Head of Defence Personnel in the Australian Defence Force, regarding Australia's experience in allowing openly gay personnel to serve in their military, in a television ad urging the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell that was recently rejected by Fox news

"I do not believe that military policy decisions -- on this or any other subject -- should be made through a referendum of servicemembers."

-- Defense Secretary Robert Gates in a letter to Senator John McCain in response to McCain's letter requesting that a survey to military personnel about Don't Ask, Don't Tell be modified to include questions regarding whether the policy should be changed

"We just spent four hours talking about taking public comment on a motion about whether to have public comment on a motion to include public comment in the process of appointing an interim mayor,"

-- San Francisco Supervisor Sean Elsbernd regarding the process for selecting the City's next mayor when the incumbant, Gavin Newsom, assumes the office of California's Leuitenant Governor

"The Founding Fathers originally said, they put certain restrictions on who gets the right to vote. It wasn't you were just a citizen and you got to vote.... But one of those was you had to be a property owner. And that makes a lot of sense, because if you're a property owner you actually have a vested stake in the community. If you're not a property owner, you know, I'm sorry but property owners have a little bit more of a vested interest in the community than non-property owners."

-- Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation, advocating returning to policies that only allowed property owners to vote

"If you ask me, when it takes the destruction of two 100-story office buildings in New York before anyone will touch your junk, it's a bit churlish to complain about the attention."

-- Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian, regarding TSA security pat-down procedures 

"If you're going around telling a lie you may get by but you won't be half as happy as you would be if you came out. If that means you have to give up hopes of being one of the three or four young sex symbols in Hollywood so be it. You probably weren't going to be one of those anyway. That happens by chance and it doesn't last for very long. There is a difference between living a private life and being in the closet. Being in the closet means you're lying about your life but just because you come out doesn't mean you have to talk about every affair you have. You don't have to talk about what you do in bed anymore than I have to talk about the food I eat."

-- Oscar-nominated Sir Ian McKellen on Hollywood's homophobia and actors coming out

"Unfortunately, when hope diminishes, the hate is often turned most bitterly toward those who originally built up the hope."

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I think I will serve as secretary of state as my last public position and the probably go back to advocacy, and probably on behalf of women and children."

-- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, discounting the likelihood of a future presidential bid

""Democrats are understandably -- and largely justified in being -- frustrated that they lost an election based on Republicans defending tax cuts for the wealthy that are only expiring because of a budget gimmick championed by George Bush -- and based on criticism of their apparent lack of concern over the deficit, by a party that has shown no past or current seriousness about deficit reduction and the hard choices involved. Losing those political fights was as inexplicable as it was hard for the Democrats. Maybe that's why Thursday seemed to have donkeys melting down all over the place."

-- Time Magazine's Mark Halperin

"Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Hideki Tojo tried and failed. Mao Zedong, Nikita Khrushchev and Ho Chi Minh couldn't do it. But commander in chief Barack Obama may well succeed where others could not. If he has his way, he will demolish the finest force for good in the history of mankind -- the U.S. armed forces. And he wants to make it all happen before the end of the year."

-- Drug trafficker and illegal trader of arms to Iran Oliver North regarding the proposed repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

"If the House has voted by majority to repeal it, the President thinks it should be repealed, the Senate majority is for repealing, the only thing that saves it is this abusive filibuster, then I think any claim that he has to defend it in court disapears. It has no more, any moral force, let the people who filibustered try to defend it in court."

-- U.S. Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) regarding Don't Ask, Don't Tell