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Chris Bryant, British MP, speaking in the House of Commons
about the importance of Pride: “I should start by declaring an interest in this Pride debate. The Daily Mail once referred to me as an ‘ex-gay vicar.’ I am an ex-vicar, but the other stuff is coming along quite nicely. In fact, I am a practicing homosexual—one day I will be quite good at it. People ask me, ‘Why on earth do you need a Pride Month? Do you really need LGBT History Month? What’s the point of Pride marches and Pride flags? Hasn’t the world changed? Haven’t you already got same-sex marriage and adoption, gays in the police and the military, and laws that protect people from discrimination on the grounds of their sexual orientation or gender reassignment? What more do you want?’ That is what I hear all the time, even from really well-meaning, liberal souls. But we have always needed Pride. We needed it when people lazily assumed that a short haircut meant that you were a lesbian or a lisp meant that you were gay. We needed it when people laughed at Larry Grayson and John Inman but forced them to hide their sexuality. We needed it when people said that we should be harassed, arrested and locked up for loving who we wanted. We needed it when the police wore rubber gloves to arrest us, just in case we gave them AIDS. We needed it when we were called queer, faggot and arse bandit at school. We needed it when we were sneered at, spat at, punched, kicked and beaten up. And we need Pride now—when kids are still bullied because they are camp or butch; when families still throw their LGBT children out of the home; when many are so worn down by abuse that they take their own lives; when so many are so terrified of coming out that they live lives of terrible, crushing loneliness; when people are abused for wanting to transition. When our cousins in Hungary are denied the right to demonstrate; when the state police in many countries deliberately entrap homosexuals; when trans people are treated as less than human; and when homosexuality is still illegal in 63 countries, including 38 that apply those rules to women, and including more than half the Commonwealth. Yes, we still need Pride.” Bravo, sir, bravo! |
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Sean Casten, Democrat Illinois Representative, on impeaching
The Felon for his bombing of Iran: “This is not about the merits of Iran’s nuclear program. No President has the authority to bomb another country that does not pose an imminent threat to the US without approval of Congress. This is an unambiguous impeachable offense. I’m not saying we have the votes to impeach. I’m saying you do not do this without Congressional approval and if [Mike] Johnson doesn’t grow a spine and learn to be a real boy tomorrow we have a problem that puts our very Republic at risk.” All because no one came to his birthday party. And then you have Little Mike Johnson, so desperate to be a part of the bully squad, that he sold that little black spot he once called his soul to the most unChristian human who ever lived. |
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Rabbi Marisa James, on wars
and wars and warmongers: “May Iranians, who mostly hate their leaders, be safe. May Palestinians, who mostly hate their leaders, be safe. May Israelis, who mostly hate their leaders, be safe. May US citizens, who mostly hate their leaders, be safe. May all the war-mongering authoritarians be deposed and may they one day experience real justice for all the suffering and death they cause.” It’s the innocent people and the children who pay with their lives when fascists and authoritarians
want to prove their manhood. |
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Stephen Fry, comedian, actor, writer, on JK Rowling being “radicalized
by TERFS”: “She has been radicalized I fear and it may be she has been radicalized by [Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist] TERFs, but also by the vitriol that is thrown at her. It is unhelpful and only hardens her and will only continue to harden her, I am afraid. She seems to be a lost cause for us. She started to make these peculiar statements and had very strong difficult views. She seemed to wake up or kick a hornet’s nest of transphobia which has been entirely destructive. I disagree profoundly with her on this subject. I am angry she does not disavow some of the more revolting and truly horrible, violently destructive things that people say. She does not attack those at all. She says things that are inflammatory and contemptuous, mocking, and add to a terribly distressing time for trans people. She has crowed at the success of legislation in Scotland and elsewhere, declaring things about gender. So, I am very happy to go on the record to say that I am really angry. My view about all things of [a] sharp and difficult nature is that it is much more important to be effective than to be right.” Fry sparked controversy in 2022 when he failed to
condemn Rolwing and her beliefs about trans people despite saying his
transgender friends had been left “deeply upset” by her views so it’s nice to
see him step up and voice his anger at his, I hope, former friend.. |
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Jinkx Monsoon, AKA Hera
Lilith Hoffer, American drag queen, actress, singer and comedienne, on her
idol, Lucille Ball: “I want to be remembered in the way Lucille Ball is remembered; where, on the surface, she made us laugh, but when you peel away the layers she was so much more than a comedienne on television. She was punk-fucking-rock. I want to be like that. I want to be remembered first pleasantly and then when you really sit there and think about it, you think, ‘That badass bitch really did some fucking shit. She really rattled some cages and ruffled some feathers.’ ,I guess I want to be remembered for disturbing the status quo.” Lucille Ball wasn’t just
funny, she was a savvy businessperson. And she took on the status quo and set
Hollywood and television on their collective ears. |
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Jason Isaacs, actor from The White Lotus and Harry Potter, on playing the lover to a then-25-year-old Daniel Craig in Tony
Kushner’s Angels in America at London’s
National Theatre in 1993: “We had a lot of sex. And then I kissed Daniel and he was so easy with it. And then I was easy with it and we were really easy with each other’s bodies and I thought, oh, it’s just that. God, I built this up and, and we had to lie naked on under the sheet for an hour every night. And it was easy. He’s very easy in his body. [But] I used to drag him to showers to make him shave because I got a stubble rash off him. We used to pinch each other’s bits under the sheets to make each other laugh.” Okay, now all I can think about is Jason and Daniel in the
sheets pinching each other’s bits. Lucky bastards. |
