I Didn't Say It ...

Blake Skjellerup, on being at one of Jason Collin’s first games as an openly gay player:

"In the space of 30 seconds, I saw one of the greatest things about sport, and something I had always believed existed, but never witnessed. The gentleman beside me was not the only person calling out 'Jason Collins.' As I think about it now, the goosebumps I felt last night re-appear. An arena full of people, calling and chanting the name of a player who is undoubtedly one of the most well-known athletes in the world, who is in a professional sport, and is gay. As Jason took to the court, the crowd, myself included, took to our feet. The applause and cheering that followed was something I will never forget. As a 16-year-old I longed for a role model and visible identity like Jason Collins. Now, as a 28-year-old, I was a part of something that showed the greatness of sport, and also, the greatness of humanity."

Odd, isn’t it, that the media and the owners and some players made this a big deal when it really wasn’t?

Michele Bachmann, Crazy-eyed wacknut Republican Congresswoman from Minnesota, upset that Jan Brewer vetoed Arizona’s anti-gay 'religious freedom' bill:

“I believe that tolerance is a two-way street, and we need to respect everyone's rights, including the rights of people who have sincerely held religious beliefs,...Religious liberties and the protection of our religious liberties is right...Right now, there's a terrible intolerance afoot in the United States, and it's against people who hold sincerely held religious beliefs.”

Isn’t it funny how she talks about the two-way street and how The Gays should be tolerant of religious people denying us service in their publicly run businesses, but she doesn’t apply that same tolerance the religious folks?

How she can say idiotic things while talking out of both sides of her ass is the height of hilarity.

And stupidity.

Shannon Bream, FoxNews talking Blond Bimbo, on the controversy over Arizona's SB 1062:

"This is America. We all have freedoms. Why would you want to do business with somebody — no matter what your personal issue was that they had with you — why would you want to force them to do business with you? Why not just go down the street and say I'm going to spend my money with somebody who supports me, and is kind to me, and wants to help me and provide these services for me?"

Sounds good. So, let’s have businesses put signs in their windows saying who is welcome and who is not. I mean, we did it fifty years ago with Black grocers and White grocers; separate drinking fountains; whites only theater seats.

And that worked just fine, right Shannon?

And maybe someone can put up a sign saying they refuse service to FoxNews airheads who can’t find their asses with both hands. But then, where oh where, would Shannon Bream go?

Deion Sanders, former NFL player Deion Sanders, on gays in football:

"He's not the first gay guy in the NFL! He's the first one to come out, let's get that straight. Every team I've played on, there was someone...we always knew. But he was cool. That was our boy. We had to look out for him. Every team I've played on - five different teams - there was someone gay in the locker room."

Seriously. Does anyone really believe that Michael Sam would be the first gay player? i mean, there have been gay players, closeted gay players, before him, and you cannot think the team didn't know about them.

Good on Deion, but then...

Deion Sanders, putting his foot in his mouth:

"I don't nor do I condemn, but I've had a friend, family members... Everyone out there, you've had someone of homosexuality in your family — and someone whose on drugs and alcohol. How can I judge them? It's up to me to give him love, to give him support, to just be there for him. So I don't condone nor I condemn. But I'm gonna love him. Everybody in the NFL is always talking about football as a family but when you have the opportunity to really extend and show them that you're a family member, this is the opportunity."

'Someone of homosexuality'? What the hell does that mean? And then why go on to say smoothing about people on drugs and alcohol as if being gay is like being a drunk or drug addict.

I think Deion should have stopped talking a minute or so ago.

Clayton Morris, FoxNews Host, apologizing for remarks he made while commenting on Facebook's recently-added gender identity options:

“Look, I made a pretty ignorant statement a few weeks ago, we were talking about the Facebook story where they added the bunch of different gender-identifying things. And I made sort of an offhanded comment and I regretted it later because now, ‘Wait a second. There are people who are actually dealing with this and I’m an idiot for saying something stupid like that.’ So before you open your mouth, just think about it a little bit.”

Wow. A FoxNews host actually apologized for saying something stupid and still has his job? Maybe he should have a sit-down with Shannon and set her queer.

Steve King, Iowa Republican Congressman, ISBL Asshat of the Week, and all-around moronic bigot and homophobe, on Jan Brewer's veto of Arizona's SB 1062:

"When you’re in the private sector and you’re an individual entrepreneur with God-given rights that our founding fathers defined in the Declaration, you should be able to make our own decisions on what you do in that private business. … That’s what they’re trying to protect is special rights for self-professed behavior. … If it’s not specifically protected in the Constitution, then it’s got to be an immutable characteristic, that being a characteristic that can be independently verified and cannot be willfully changed.”

Oh Steve, you spend so much time trying to bash the gays one wonders if you aren’t just a self-loathing closeted homosexual yourself trying to keep the attention off of you.

First off, owning a business isn’t a ‘God given right.’ It’s a business.

Secondly. We aren’t asking for special rights, we’re asking for equality. Got it?

Thirdly, if you wanna verify homosexuality does that mean you wanna have sex with guys, because it sounds suspiciously like a Craig’s List ad to me:

“Lonely Iowa Congressman needs to verify homosexuality.”

Sit down, Steve, and stay down.

George Will, on Arizona’s failed Don’t Serve The Gays Bill: 

"It's a funny kind of sore winner in the gay rights movement that would say, 'A photographer doesn't want to photograph my wedding—I’ve got lots of other photographers I could go to, but I'm going to use the hammer of government to force them to do this.'... It's not neighborly and it's not nice. The gay rights movement is winning. They should be, as I say, not sore winners."

But if we want a photographer to do his job, his business, his work, then why should we go elsewhere?

It’s a business, George, and it’s discrimination for a business owner to deny services based on sexual orientation. Again, I wonder how people like George Will would act if a gay business owner refused service to conservatives and Republicans and Teabaggers and all the other wingnuts.

George would get his granny pants all kinds of twisted.

John Travolta, on the Adele Dazim/Idina Menzel kerfuffle at the Oscars:

"I've been beating myself up all day. Then I thought ... what would Idina Menzel say. She'd say, Let it go, let it go! Idina is incredibly talented and I am so happy Frozen took home two Oscars Sunday night!"

Actually, Idina Menzel might wonder how a grown man, who professes to be a big show queen, and who came to Oscar rehearsals and who read his scripted patter, could eff up her name so badly.

Idina Menzel night wonder if your face was too Frozen or if your new rug was too tight.

I Didn't Say It ....

Harvey Fierstein, on Orson Scott Card, writer of Ender's Game:

"The quotes that got me about him weren’t against gay marriage -- he wanted homosexuality criminalized in the United States. That's what he called for. You want me to be tolerant of you wanting to criminalize homosexuality? F--k you on your grave, you piece of s--t."

I loathe the so-called Christians who want me to tolerate their faith while they use their faith to have me declared a criminal for my sexual orientation.

The fact is that Orson Scott Card and his ilk chose their faith; I was born this way.

Johnny Weir, on the suggested boycott of the Winter Olympics in Russia because of their anti-LGBT stance:

"To have a boycott would not only negate the career of some athletes who have only one chance at competing at the Games, but also the over-time shifts an exhausted father takes to make ends meet, or the social acclimatization of a brother who can’t go on spring break because his brother needed another costume, or the mother who works part-time at a job far beneath her, just so she can afford to watch her first born perform for the world. The Olympics are not a political statement, they are a place to let the world shine in peace and let them marvel at their youthful talents. ... I respect the LGBT community full heartedly, but I implore the world not to boycott the Olympic Games because of Russia’s stance on LGBT rights or lack thereof. I beg the gay athletes not to forget their missions and fight for a chance to dazzle the world."

I’m on Team Johnny here.

I want our LGBT athletes, and LGBT ally athletes to go to the games and stand up for the LGBT community and against Putin’s homophobic, intolerant, and even deadly, policies.

Desmond Tutu, Anglican Archbishop and social rights activist, on refusing entrance to Heaven if God is a homophobe: 

"I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place. I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this."

So many folks got their robes in a snit over this quote, but to me, what Tutu is saying is that God isn’t homophobia, and if she was, Tutu might choose a different after-life.

Blake Skjellerup, out speed skater, on the suggested boycott of the Winter Olympics in Russia because of their anti-LGBT stance: 

“For me it’s less about taking a stand and more about just being myself...I have no interest in going back into the closet in Sochi...This is not about defiance. This is me standing up for what I believe in.”

And, as I said, standing up against Putin’s Russia.

John Barrowman, on the vicious hostility he experienced after the announcement of his wedding:

"I don't get it. Some of the comments were outrageously vile. Quoting lines from the Bible. I won't tolerate it. People like that are banned on my Twitter account. I tell them to f**k off...People have a right to their beliefs but it doesn't mean they have to be nasty and deny other people their human rights. The world is not going to change and fall apart because a gay couple got married."

It’s love, people.

It’s a man who found the person with whom he chooses to be married and if you can’t be happy for people in love then you just can’t ever be happy.

Harvey Fierstein, on the suggested boycott of the Winter Olympics in Russia because of their anti-LGBT stance:

"You can’t get them through a U.N. sanction: 'Oh boy, the U.S. is mad at me. I’m shaking all the f--k over.' There’s only one way and that's in the pocketbook. You hurt them in the pocketbook, they shut the f--k up and back the f--k down. ... And Olympic athletes, I understand: You’ve worked your asses off for this for years, but there are still bigger things than you hanging something around your neck. There are bigger things in this world."

I usually agree with Harvey, but I think if we stay away, it’ll just be like the time we boycotted the Moscow Olympics because of something Russia did.

Remember that? Not many folks do; and about the only thing that came of that boycott was that Russia boycotted the LA Olympics in America after that.

Go. Stand tall. Stand proud. Stand out.

Sharon Osbourne, on Justin Bieber:

“I feel really bad for him. There’s this little kid with a huge dream, he’s cute, girls love him, and he wants to be a mean boy, and he’s about as mean as a fuckin’ kitten, and he’s trying to act out. It’s like pissing in a bucket. It’s like, “Oh, we’re the bad boys!” Fuck off! You don’t know what bad is. And I think that he’s lost, I really do. And, at the point he’s at in his career, it’s so dangerous because we’ve seen it all before a million times. Where do you go when you’re a child entertainer and then you want to transition to be a man? Very few make it.”

Sing it, Sharon.

Christian Vincent, out gay Danish actor, on why the struggle for LGBT rights in Russia and around the world matters: 
"I am privileged enough to be able to say [that I'm gay] openly, even publicly without any consequences. This is not something I need to do or something I have to do but I have the right to do it. The value of this right is not to be underestimated. The value of this right is not to be taken for granted. The absence of this right is lethal. If you are one of those who are, as myself, lucky enough to have this right, I merely ask of you to use it. Our brothers and sisters in Russia among many other places need our voice and our support now more than ever...Awareness has started and awareness is hope. And hope is never silent. So I ask of you once again, tell the world it's not okay."

Word.
I hope Russia gets the message.

I Didn't Say It.......

New Zealand speed skater, Blake Skjellerup, coming out of the closet:

"The first real issue was that I was there [at the Olympics] to compete--to focus on my skating--and to not have the focus on my sexuality. We are not yet at the point in society where being gay sportsperson is not a big deal. If I was asked during any of my twenty-something interviews at the Olympics whether I had a boyfriend or a girlfriend--in the same sentence--I would have replied honestly, but I may have replied hesitantly....Gays are too often given a stereotype. Back when I was 18, and becoming serious about my sport and my Olympic goals, if I could have seen an athlete like myself out there--with whom I could relate to--my journey would have been a lot easier. Johnny Weir meets a specific stereotype, I meet a specific stereotype and Gareth Thomas meets another. Being gay is just like any other personality trait: it’s multifaceted. I can’t personally relate to Weir or Thomas, and nor will many other young gay athletes out there. But maybe some of them will see something in me to relate to. The more types we provide, the more we’ll appeal to people [who are struggling with their sexuality.]"

Sandra Bullock, on why she won't be making any movies any time soon:
"All I know is that I want to be able to enjoy being a mom. Doing all the things moms get to do, outside in the sun, in the world. The career will have to wait for a bit. I don't want to step into that world until I can find out what room I left my armour in. You need tough skin to be in this business. I don't have tough skin right now and I don't want it."

Madonna, on taking some time off from her music to focus on her upcoming movie, W.E.:
"I haven't really been focused as much as I should be on the music part of my career, because the movie has consumed every inch of me. Between that and my four children, I don’t have the time or energy for anything else...[and]...it's weird. I don't have a record deal right now with anybody. I don't know how I'm going to get my music out the next time I make a record."

Demi Moore, on :::yawn::: staying youthful:

"I would say that a lot of sex helps. It's the endorphins! But there's more than that, it's also sharing a quality life with someone. I know I have someone who loves me for who I am and who I'm not. He loves me for my imperfections and that makes me feel so happy....I've aged, I don't look the same as I did in my 20s and 30s. But you've got to make the most of what you have."

Susan Boyle, on plastic surgery:

"I would like to have my teeth done. But that would be it. I don't want to change too much of myself. I won't be looking like Barbie any time soon."

Congressman Patrick Murphy, on the fight to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell:

"After my three years in Washington, I think when folks tell you to walk away, that’s usually a sign that you’re getting close. So we have to keep working, people need to call their members of Congress, their Senators. Obviously, the letter was a setback, but I know we’re on the right side of history here and we’re going to keep fighting till we get this done this year...I said from the get-go that just because change is hard it doesn’t mean it can’t happen. We have a bi-partisan bill to repeal 'don’t ask, don’t tell' in the House of Representatives. We have Republican support, we have Colin Powell now on board, we even have Dick Cheney calling for repeal. We need to keep fighting."

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network head Aubrey Sarvis. on Obama, DADT, and the protests:

"In his State of the Union message President Obama said repealing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' was the right thing to do. But Friday evening President Obama did the wrong thing, and in doing so he and Secretary Gates delivered a devastating blow to getting repeal done this year. Their joint political decision showed a lack of respect for our LGBT service members who are on the frontlines every day risking their lives for our safety.

As a result of the Commander in Chief's decision to defer to Secretary Gates' wishes and timeline, gay service members will continue to be treated as second class citizens, and any sense of fairness may well have been delayed for yet another year, perhaps for another decade. The President did not sound like a fierce repeal advocate. He sounded like someone who wants to have it both ways. And that is not leadership. That is politics as usual."