"[Before I came out,] I'd used that excuse that most people use — that it's nobody's business. But when it really came down to it, you don't hear straight people saying, 'No one needs to know whether I'm straight or not.' The only reason you don't tell people is because you're ashamed of it. Shame stifles you, whether it's your sexuality or something else."
– Ellen DeGeneres to the British lesbian glossy Diva, January issue.
"A Gay Pride concert in Moscow would be a brilliant idea. [T]here's a time when you have to step up. I never stood up to the AIDS thing because I was in a drug haze – even though my friends were dying left, right and centre – I wasn't on the front line and I should have been. Maybe we [gay pop-music acts] should, en masse, go to Moscow next year, if they'll have us."
– Elton John to Britain's The Observer, Nov. 12. Moscow's mayor and courts banned last year's first gay pride march.
"I don't see the purpose of talking about one's private life. It seems a waste of time to identify yourself by the occasional sexual preference. What's that about? 'I eat rice, but not potatoes.' 'So you're a rice person?' All this identification. Americans have the worst reputation as the most idiotic people on earth when it comes to talking about themselves. Nobody cares."
– Openly gay writer Gore Vidal, 81, to Out magazine, December issue.
"The Bible does indeed mention gay sex. Sort of. But only if you choose as your personal vicious doctrine the conservative homophobic English version, with its many unhappy passages rewritten/interpreted quite intentionally (and much more recently) to sneer at gay sex. The original Hebrew and Greek texts themselves, on the other hand, have plenty to say about adultery and pedophilia, but contain not a single word on the notion of true, healthy, emotionally satisfying same-sex love."
– San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford, Nov. 15.
"He and I just like each other, and I think we set a good example here in the Senate. He's a Republican, I'm a Democrat, we work together on issues that are important to the state of Nevada. And I wish other people had the same nonaggression pact we have. It's not a 'Brokeback Mountain' situation."
– U.S. Senate Majority Leader-elect Harry Reid of Nevada talking about fellow Nevada Senator John Ensign, as quoted by the Associated Press, Nov. 15.
"I am so stressed out over 'Shortbus.' I have worked so hard on this movie but I can't even sleep through a full night. I take Ambien every night just to get five hours of sleep if I am lucky."
– Gay writer/director/producer John Cameron Mitchell on his new critically acclaimed film "Shortbus," to the Palm Springs gay magazine The Bottom Line, Nov. 10. The film is unusual in that the characters have actual sex onscreen.
"I believe that the don't ask, don't tell policy is working in the military. … I believe in the sanctity and unique role of marriage between man and woman. But I certainly don't believe in discriminating against any American. … I do believe that people ought to be able to enter into contracts, exchange powers of attorney, other ways that people who have relationships can enter into. … I just want to point out again, I believe that gay marriage should not be legal, OK? But I don't believe that we should discriminate against any American because that's not the nature of American, OK? … I don't believe we should discriminate against anyone in the workplace. But I don't think we need specific laws that would apply necessarily to people who are gay."
– U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who apparently is running for president, to ABC News, Nov. 19.
