I Didn't Say It ...

Russell Tovey, of HBO's Looking, expressing gratitude that his father helped steer him away from becoming too effeminate:

"I was so envious of everyone who went to Sylvia Young Theatre School. I wanted to go but my dad flat-out refused. He thought I’d become some tapdancing freak without qualifications. And he was right in a way. I’m glad I didn’t go. That might have changed…I feel like I could have been really effeminate, if I hadn’t gone to the school I went to. Where I felt like I had to toughen up. If I’d have been able to relax, prance around, sing in the street, I might be a different person now. I thank my dad for that, for not allowing me to go down that path. Because it’s probably given me the unique quality that people think I have.”

It's funny, because Carlos and I were watching The Amazing Race the other day, and they have two gay couples on; one is decidedly more effeminate than the other, but no less, or more, gay. And I remarked to Carlos how much I liked seeing these differences because it just shows that gay men come in all varieties and sizes and colors and natures.

It saddens me, then, that Tovey seems to want to diminish these effeminate gay men as somehow undesirable.

Russell Tovey, apologizing for his remarks:

"I'm saddened that a misfired inarticulate quote of mine has branded me 'worst gay ever'. If you feel I have personally let you down, I'm sorry, that was never my intention." 

Not the best at apologizing, Russell.
'If I feel like you let me down'? You did let us down, because why we might understand homophobia outside our community, it's hard to understand coming from one of our own.
You should have said, 'I'm sorry i offended you. I.Was.Wrong.'

James Van Der Beek, actor best known for Dawson's Creek, joining the NOH8 campaign:

"If you say you love this country for its freedoms, but want to deny gays the same freedoms you enjoy, you sound like a hypocrite. And – just to clarify – 'freedom' is having the right to live as you choose. It’s not the right to choose how everyone else lives." 

I never saw "The Creek," so I am not a JVDB fan, but, well, I may tune in the next time he's on TV after hearing him say this.

Eric Holder, US Attorney General, on marriage equality:

"Nothing justifies excluding same-sex couples from the institution of marriage. Denying them the right to marry serves only to demean them and their children, to degrade the dignity of their families and to deny them the full, free and equal participation in American life to which every citizen is entitled."

It really just comes down to treating everybody equally, no matter how different they might seem.

Zachary Quinto, on marriage:

“There are benefits to the institution of marriage. I personally am not a huge fanatic of marriage, whether it’s gay or straight. Commitment and relationships are a very individual thing, and I don’t stand to tell other people what to do or who to do it with, but for me, love is defined by two people in an intimate and personal way, and superimposing an institution on that isn’t necessarily for me, the most exciting idea.”

Here's the deal: no one is suggesting that simply because we have marriage equality nearly everywhere now, that gay people must get married;  It was never that we had to do it, it's that we weren’t allowed to do it if we wanted.

Quinto doesn't have to get married if, for him, that's something he doesn't want, but he should be the one to make that decision, not the government.

Ryan Murphy, Glee an American Horror Story creator, on Glee's LGBT legacy: 

"I have always believed in the ideology of one of my friends and idols, Norman Lear, that the way to acceptance is understanding. You have to see it, experience it in your own house and your life, to empathize. I think the success of Glee and Modern Family brought gay kids and gay families to millions of people who think they didn’t know those kinds of people, and then suddenly, within the course of one month, they did. To me, that is the great legacy of these shows and is why public opinion, I think, has changed so radically and so quickly."

You can say what you want about Glee overstaying its welcome, but you cannot deny that, through its storytelling, and openly gay characters, more and more people became aware of us, and of the fact that we aren't so very different or so very frightening.