May
1, 2002
BY REX WOCKNER and TRACY BAIM
"The thing I really can't square is that gays are arbiters of style and culture, yet gay cultural products are so consistently terrible. Most recently, Pet Shop Boys and Jonathan Harvey produced Closer to Heaven, a car crash of a musical about two young club kids falling in love against a backdrop of drugs and cardboard cut-out stereotypes (vile music producer, club owner on the verge of a nervous breakdown, ageing chanteuse). The songs were ear-ringingly terrible. The costumes were from Fame. The message was dim and mixed: drugs can screw you up so reject the evil club scene, then suddenly in the finale: embrace the club scene 'cos dancing's all we got.'" &emdash; Critic Tim Teeman in The London Times, explaining why not all gay men adore camp classics, as Chitty Chitty Bang bang opens in the West End.
"While we're dabbling in savings, money expert Suze Orman might be my new deity if it turns out she's one of us. On a recent TV appearance, Orman kept talking, without pronouns, about a 'person' she once had a relationship with. Adding yet more intrigue, a USA Today article once reported, 'Orman remains single and says extensive traveling and personal appearances leave little time for personal relationships.' Do you buy that (or would you maybe rather buy a money market fund)?" &emdash; Source unknown, gossip on the internet.
"Here are non-gay people who can't even take the harassment of living on a street called Gay, much less being gay. Wouldn't it be nice if the gay and lesbian community could simply petition to have themselves named the 'green apple community' and we could eliminate the harassment, intimidation and hatred that we experience on a daily basis." &emdash; Local gay activist Jim McCarthy after 19 residents of Gay Road in Montgomery County, Ohio, lobbied successfully to have their street name changed to Green Apple Road, to the Dayton Daily News, April 12.
"In the television program Will and Grace, the title character, Will, is regularly teased by his gay friend Jack about being overweight when the actor who portrays Will is clearly not overweight. Future research could examine the impact of these kinds of messages on the risk for disordered eating in gay men." &emdash; Dr. Pamela K. Keel of Harvard University, co-author of a study which found that 14 percent of gay men are bulimic and 20 percent are anorexic, to the Reuters wire service, April 10. The study results appear in the current International Journal of Eating Disorders.
"Coming out of the closet was the single biggest step I ever took toward emotional and psychological well-being, and I have never regretted it. ... For me to receive this award tonight means more than I will ever be able to express." &emdash; Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Media Awards April 13 in Los Angeles.
"Today the whole category of gay and lesbian fiction seems dated and about to disappear. ... Gay subject matter [isn't] exhausted. .. What is disappearing is the audience." &emdash; Veteran gay author Edmund white writing in the May issue of Out magazine.
"Sonny [Bono] just submerged who he was to get to the place that he got to. I mean, Sonny was a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, a real forward thinker. And to get to where he got to [as a Republican Congressman], he had to become best friends with Dan Quayle. I'd rather walk naked through the fires of hell." &emdash; Cher to Out magazine, May issue.
"Many people see the footage of gay-pride parades, and there's nothing to balance it with. The stories of people who are happy and have been together for years and years and have adopted children are not nearly as fun to look at as 55 guys in drag on a float going crazy." &emdash; Cher to Out magazine, May issue.
"I just don't like it [Queer As Folk]. I think it's just a caricature of gay people, and they are just so much more versatile than the show allows. ... I think Six Feet Under takes the gay character and gives him real humanity, gives him conflicts within himself, and makes him a real person that you could be empathetic toward and say, 'He would make a good friend.' You know, all the things that Queer As Folk doesn't show." &emdash; Cher.
"[Chastity] was such a beautiful little girl and very girly. Then the moment that it started to change, she got, like, very butch. And so for me, I think that was much more difficult than having her be gay, because I just didn't want to lose that girly side of her." &emdash; Cher.
"I started noticing that I had a huge group of gay men coming to my live shows. And gay men are so loyal to you; I mean, people can just bash you and dis you, but if gay men love you, they love you, and they don't really leave you. The thing is, gay men either love you or they don't even take into account your existence." &emdash; Cher.
"The Blade was a community-based newspaper, and Window Media moved it away from that community base. They're going into local gay communities and buying up all the papers, and it's sad, because the quality has gone way down. The Blade was very well-respected in both gay and mainstream media, and you just can't say that anymore." &emdash; Former Washington Blade photo editor Clint Steib, one of several staffers who have departed since Window Media bought what had long been considered the world's best gay newspaper, to the Washington, D.C., City Paper, April 11.
"I have no memory of my own mutilation [circumcision] experience. My mother told me recently that I screamed for hours in pain and shock. Because I don't recall it now doesn't mean it wasn't traumatic then. Can you imagine our medical system doing this unnecessary procedure in any other context? I'm sorry but this is an indefensible practice." &emdash; Gay journalist Andrew Sullivan writing at AndrewSullivan.com, April 16.
"If the [Vatican] conservatives purge every gay priest, ramp up teachings against sex without procreation even further, and do so with the credibility of the current leadership, then the exodus from the pews will be massive." &emdash; Sullivan.
Veteran gay author Edmund White. Photo by Rex Wockner