I Didn't Say It ....

Tom Hiddleston, on having gay fans, and making their “Hot” lists:

“Honestly, I’m flattered and proud. I’ve never made a distinction, to be honest. I feel very proud that I’ve grown up as part of a generation that simply doesn’t make a distinction between gay and straight really…it just really isn’t an issue or actually it is. You know you read about what’s happening in Russia and it’s shocking but for me and the circle of friends that I grew up with, the places where I mostly spend my time, it’s like, ‘Oh. So you like strawberry ice cream and you like vanilla ice cream.’ It’s all good. It’s all ice cream. Anyway, I have many, many gay friends and so I am thrilled that they are fans.”

A fan’s sexual orientation should never be put in question.

They’re fans, not prospective lovers and life-mates.

PS: Tom Hiddleston is adorable.

Ricky Martin, on being an In-The-Closet-Homophobe:

"I was very angry, very rebellious. I used to look at gay men and think, I'm not like that, I don't want to be like that, that's not me. I was ashamed. When you're told you're wrong by everyone, from society, from your faith — my self-esteem was crushed. I took my anger out on those around me. I look back now and realize I would bully people who I knew were gay. I had internalized homophobia. To realize that was confronting to me. I wanted to get away from that."

The biggest homophobes, as I’ve always said, are those gay men, and women, still living in a closet of self-loathing.

Nice that Ricky acknowledged it.

PS: Ricky gets better looking the older he gets.

Bryan Fischer, AFA spokesbigot, on why Hillary Clinton won't win in 2016: 

"She's just going to be too old, going to be too saggy, gravity will have done too much of its mojo on her; she's just going to look old and tired next to virtually anybody that the Republicans run out there."

Pot.Kettle.Sagging bigot.

Take a look in a mirror Bryan, if saggy and old is so bad, get off’a the TV and the internet already.

Cory Booker, on the rumors that he is gay:

“I have not settled down with a life partner ... Because how unfair is it to a young lady to put them in the spotlight if they haven’t signed up for that yet? And people who think I’m gay, some part of me thinks it’s wonderful. Because I want to challenge people on their homophobia. I love seeing on Twitter when someone says I’m gay, and I say, ‘So what does it matter if I am? So be it. I hope you are not voting for me because you are making the presumption that I’m straight.’”

This is a new age of politicians and of people who are standing up and saying, ‘So what if you think I’m gay, it’s not a bad thing.’

PS: the shallow part of me, kinda wishes he was gay because he’s just adorable.

James Blake, professional tennis player who retired this week, on the anti-gay laws in Russia:

"I think everyone at this point, when you look at numbers, someone in your circle, whether it's a family member or a friend, is gay, transgender, or bisexual. You should appreciate that those people are valued members of society, people that are doing something good in the world. They should feel comfortable to live their lives. I think any sort of policy that discriminates against them, that excludes them, is completely unfair in today's day and age. That's why I say we're 50 years out and there are still things going on that are discriminatory."

It’s true, it’s not just anti-gay laws and sentiments, it’s about valuing all people. This is just another brand of discrimination we have to rid ourselves of so we can move on.

PS: he's all kinds of hot.

Francis George, Chicago's Catholic Cardinal, on marriage equality: 

"This is first of all a rational issue before it's a faith issue. That is, it's nature that tells us what marriage is, that in marriage, men and women aren't interchangeable. We didn't invent marriage. The church didn't invent marriage. Nature gives us marriage. The Chinese are not Americans, and they're not Catholic. They know what marriage is. Where did that come from?"

Um, Frankie George, take a look at your Bible and see where it says marriage is one man and one woman, or one man, one woman and a concubine, or one man and one woman as property, or one man and a couple of women, or one man and the wife of his dead brother.

It’s in Genesis if you need help.

Check out Deuteronomy where it says a man who rapes a virgin is married to her.  Or where it says, in times of war, men kill all the men women and children, except for the virgins, who become their wives.  Or Exodus where a slave owner tells a male slave who he marries.

You didn’t invent marriage, but you sure have effed it up over the years.

Miley Cyrus, speaking out about her much-discussed VMAs performance.

"I don't pay attention to the negative because I've seen this play out so many times. How many times have we seen this play out in pop music? Madonna's done it. Britney's done it. Every VMA performance, that's what you're looking for; you're wanting to make history. Me and Robin the whole time we said, 'you know we're about to make history right now.' What's amazing is I think now, we're three days later and people are still talking about it. They're over thinking it. You're thinking about it more than I thought about it when I did it. Like, I didn't even think about it 'cause that's just me."

You’re not Madonna. Hell, you aren’t even Britney.

You’re a little girl who’s grown up in the spotlight and is looking for a way to stay there, and when that’s all you are, you’ll soon be nowhere fast.

Zachary Quinto, on coming out and how he hopes it will soon stop:

“It really shouldn’t be a f—ing issue. You know what I mean? I understand people’s interest in having a conversation with me about it, but I also feel like, ‘Let’s stop having that conversation and just have the conversation about how we can continue to encourage the evolution and change that’s already brought us so far.’”

I like knowing who is gay and straight, but we never ask the question of our celebrities, ‘Are you straight’ we just ask the Gay question.

I’d like a day where it doesn’t matter and people just are gay and straight and everything in between, without question or judgment.

PS: Yes, adorable.

I Didn't Say It ....

Riley Roberts, 18-years-old, speaking to the Nevada Assembly, asking for marriage equality for his two moms:

“My name is Riley Roberts and my life is amazing. Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you about the issue of gay marriage and how it affects my life. What issue? I see no issue. I was born in Reno, Nevada 18 years ago and guess who was there? My mom Pamela Roberts and Gretchen Miller, my loving parents. And who was there to watch me take my first steps? Pamela Roberts and Gretchen Miller. And who was there when I said my first words? My two loving parents. And who was there when I kicked my first soccer ball? My two loving parents. And who can I talk to when I need anything? My two loving parents. And who will be there to see me walk across the stage next month and receive my honors diploma? My two gay loving parents who have been together for 22 years."

How can anyone say that two women, or two men, cannot be good parents, when it’s quite obvious, again, that Pamela Roberts and Gretchen Miller raised an amazing son?

Madness, I tell you; that’s got to be the only reason.

Chelsea Clinton, on marriage equality:

"It just seems so fundamental to me. I'm able to marry the person I wanted to marry. That's the fundamental human imperative. Those of us who have been lucky enough should expand these rights to others."

Equality should be fundamental, eh?

I mean, wasn’t there something that went something like ‘all men are created equal’?

E.W. Jackson, GOP nominee for Virginia lieutenant governor, standing by his declaration that gay people are perverted and sick:

"I say the things that I say because I’m a Christian, not because I hate anybody, but because I have religious values that matter to me. Attacking me because I hold to those principles is attacking every church-going person, every family that’s living a traditional family life, everybody who believes that we all deserve the right to live. So I don’t have anything to rephrase or apologize for. I would just say people should not paint me as one-dimensional."

See what he does there?

He attacks gay people by calling them pedophiles and perverts and saying we’re sick, but when he gets attacked for his views, he pulls out a Bible to hide behind.

Judge not, asshat.

Brian Brown, NOM’s lapdog, on the recent half-assed Boy Scouts gay inclusion vote:

"Today is a sad day for the Boy Scouts of America. They have succumbed to political pressure and abandoned their historic roots in what will prove to be a failed attempt to appease gay activists and corporate donors. Unfortunately, what they have done is said to the world that their oath no longer means much. Their decision to admit openly gay scouts will end up sexualizing the organization. I am certain that having changed their policy on homosexuality, it's only a matter of time before courts order them to admit homosexual scout leaders. Meanwhile, countless thousands of churches will very likely pull their sponsorship rather than endorse homosexuality, and the entire organization will begin to collapse. All of this is happening not because of a true grassroots demand of gay youth to be part of the organization but by an orchestrated political effort by gay activists who want to punish any group or organization that does not embrace homosexuality. It's the beginning of the end for what once was one of America's noblest organizations."

I love how Brown says that by the Boy Scouts trying a little non-discrimination—at least until the scout becomes eighteen years of age—that they are advancing the homosexual agenda, or appeasing the homosexual community.

What they are doing, halfp-0assed though it may be, is treating all kids equally.

Then, of course, they’ll treat the gay adults as less than.

Bryan Fischer, AFA wingnut, on why the Mormon Church ended up supporting the, as he now calls them because name-calling works, the Boy Sodomizers of America’s decision to lift the ban on gay scouts:

"The LDS leadership, these people are smart, they're sharp, they're thinking all the time and I believe one of the reasons they may have gone soft on the homosexual agenda is that they believe that the homosexual agenda may be the secret to restoring polygamy to America and this would vindicate Mormon doctrine from the very beginning."

So, the Mormon Church sees the idea of letting young gay boys join an organization as a stepping stone toward legalizing polygamy.

Even for Fischer, who never met a lie he didn’t want to spread around like horseshit, that’s a stretch.

Harvey Fierstein, on the war against The Gays:

"The first prong is political. When a politician like Marco Rubio is willing to sacrifice his career defining immigration reform legislation solely to insure that gays and lesbians are denied equal protection under the law, we have to admit that we're under attack. This is not pragmatic politics at work. These are the policies of bias, exclusion and unfairness. 

The second wave is the steady barrage coming from those who would call themselves moral leaders. Shielded behind lecterns, they assign condemnation with impunity. Claiming to be brimming with the love of their creator, they spew forth the cowardice of the mob. Fundamentalism, whether raining down terror abroad or in homilies from our home parishes, is the enemy. It is the death knell of tolerance, progress and compromise. Fundamentalism is, in all practicality, nothing but an invitation to bigotry. 

And thirdly, when we excuse homophobia as a matter of opinion instead of treating it as a destructive social illness, we invite fear to explode into violence. How often are the perpetrators of hate-crimes discovered to be self-loathing? Valued individuals do not strike out against strangers."

Read those words.

As usual, Fierstein is perfection.

Frank Rich, on LGBT history:

"As we just learned, a man can still be murdered for being gay a few blocks away from the Stonewall Inn. But the rapidity of change has been stunning. The world only spins forward, as Tony Kushner wrote. And yet as we celebrate the forward velocity of gay rights, I think we must glance backward as well. History is being lost in this shuffle—that of those gay men and women who experienced little or none of today’s freedoms. Whatever the other distinctions between the struggles of black Americans and gay Americans for equality under the law—starting with the overarching horror of slavery—one difference is intrinsic. Black people couldn’t (for the most part) hide their identity in an America that treated them cruelly. Gay people could hide and, out of self-protection, often did. That’s why their stories were cloaked in silence and are at risk of being forgotten."

Just a reminder that, in order to move forward, we need to look back, and honor and remember and celebrate those who planted their feet in resistance to discrimination; those who chose not to hide, but to step into the light and demand equality.

James Blake, hot American tennis player, on becoming an Athlete Ally in the fight against homophobia:

“I am proud to be affiliated with Athlete Ally because they do exceptional work that can actually make a difference in the sports world and beyond. Inclusion doesn't have to be a political issue, but more a human issue. As a mixed background person, I have been told I could be hated by both sides. I have always tried to look at it the opposite way as a positive that I could be accepted and included. I am extremely lucky and feel that everyone should have the feeling of acceptance.”

It’s right in there: inclusion is a human issue. It defies religion and faith and politics.