I Didn't Say It ...

Brian Brown, of NOM, still crying because people can’t Hate The Gays:

"Not only has the Christian baker been ordered to 'cease and desist' from 'discrimination' against gay couples, but he and his staff have been ordered to undergo two years of 'training' to assure that no further 'discrimination' occurs. The baker must report quarterly to the state Civil Right Commission about how it is changing its policies, its "training" progress and the names of any clients it has refused to serve. The movement to redefine marriage was once said to be about 'tolerance and acceptance.' Today it is about tyranny. Anyone who continues to think that redefining marriage won't affect you or your children is just not paying attention. It already affects every American, and this will only continue to get worse. Oh, sure, you'll always be free to hold a belief about marriage, but if that belief ever impacts your actions as a citizen, you can expect the full force of government to come down to crush you."

Here’s what you don’t get, Brian, you and the baker can hate the gays, and hate “redefining” marriage all the live long day, but you cannot use hate, masked as religion, which the height of irony, to discriminate.

M’kay?

Phil Wilson, president of the Black AIDS Institute, on the ongoing fight: 

"The fight is today. It’s a fight that we need to have and it’s certainly tied to access to care, it’s tied to access to information, but it’s also tied to making sure that we understand that everybody matters. Now the new folks that don’t matter in this context are young, black, gay and bisexual men and all of us need to be part of that fight because as we found out in the early days of HIV, HIV spread like it spread because we didn’t care about the first folks that we perceived to be at risk. And as long as anyone is at risk ... to paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr., we’re all at risk."

HIV/AIDS knows no color, no age, no gender, no orientation, and it isn’t over, especially in the black communities.

Used to be that Silence = Death, now, though, maybe we should say Ignorance = Death.

Harry Hamlin, who appeared in the 1980s film Making Love, in which he played a gay man having an affair with a married man, saying that film ended his film career:

"It was way before its time...It was something that I would repeat. I would do it again today, even though there was a ruffle in my career after that, for sure....What it did is it created a transition for me between feature film to television...(I didn't work in feature films) ever again. That was the last feature I did..."

I’m glad he said he’d do it again because, while it was ahead of its time, it paved the way for gay-themed mainstream films.

But, Harry, after doing Making Love you appeared in Blue Skies Again in 1983, appeared on a very successful TV show LA L:aw for several years, and have made another eleven or so feature films, not including many TV films, since Making Love.

Methinks you doth protest too much, especially given that it’s been thirty years.

Charlize Theron, saying Googling herself and reading what people say about her, feels like rape:

“I don’t do that, so that’s my saving grace. When you start living in that world, and doing that, you start I guess feeling raped.” 

What is with these celebrities comparing their lives to those of rape victims or soldiers at war? I mean, I loves me some Charlize, but if it’s so violating, so close to rape, to read what folks say about her, maybe she should find another line of work.

Failing that, she should rally think before she speaks.

Lady Bunny, on the use of the word "tranny":

“Tranny is an abbreviation for transvestite and transsexual, so I'm free to use it since I fall with that category. Much as blacks can use the N-word. I know tranny from London, where they abbreviate everything -- breakfast is brekkie, biscuit is biccie. Tranny is used affectionately on the club scene. Even transsexual advocates like Jayne County and Kate Bornstein have come out and said that these words aren't necessarily slurs. … And I'm sick of people thinking they can ban words because they make them feel bad. Boo hoo for you! Any time we choose a different path in life, we're going to get shit for it -- whether you choose to be openly gay, trans or even a straight guy with tattoos all over his face. If you don't have the balls to take s--t, then choose an easy path. And for huge gay organizations like GLAAD to join in to censor Ru or anyone else confuses me. "Gender bender" is on GLAAD's list of banned words. That's what Frank-n-Furter, David Bowie and Sylvester were--that's not a slur except to the most precious, uptight goody two-shoes.”

I agree with Lady Bunny, she and others who fall into that category may use that word, but perhaps those folks that aren’t transvestite or transgender should stay away from it.

Just like I don’t like to hear anyone use the N-word, I am slightly less bothered by it when it comes from a Black person; just like I don’t like straight people using the word faggot or queer, but don’t have a problem with The Gays doing so.

Again, it all comes down to thinking before you speak.

Melissa McCarthy, on if she ever dated a gay man: 

“Just one? There were so many. In my early 20s I was like the last stop before a guy said, ‘Yep, it’s official: I’m gay.’ I’d be like, ‘Really?!’ I’d think, But he’s so funny, so charming, and such a good dresser. I never saw it coming.”

Sometimes I think she’s a gay man trapped in Melissa’s body.

Love.Her.

Akie Abe, the First Lady of Japan, speaking at a gay pride event in Tokyo:

"There is no difference to importance of love from sexual orientation. There should not be any discrimination because who you love. I am going to raise my voice. If my raised voice could contribute to the pride of LGBT people, there is no greater joy."

I imagine a lot of LGBT folks in Japan felt that same sigh of relief we felt here when Obama spoke so eloquently about equality.