"I have come to realize, having played the part, the inequality is striking. It is actually shocking to me. I had no idea about the rights that are not afforded to gays and lesbians. I think that because I am playing a gay woman, I started to take it really personally when I read stories about it to become aware of issues."
– "The L Word" actress Jennifer Beals to Los Angeles' Lesbian News, January issue.
"I've had a few [boyfriends] and had one earlier this year for about six months and it was pretty sweet. But the more he was looking for a life partner, the more frightened I became – and it kinda destroyed the whole thing. I could have a more casual relationship, but he basically wanted a wife. You know, I am the last person for that. I've spent too many years developing my way of life – and my hours."
– Village Voice columnist Michael Musto to PlanetOut.com, Jan. 6.
"It is urgent that pro-family citizens – Republicans, Democrats and independents alike – contact their U.S. Representative and Senators, as well as President Bush, to state their opposition to passage of all pro-homosexuality 'sexual orientation' bills in the new Congress. At the top of the 'gay' wish-list is ENDA, which we are calling the 'ENDA-Our Freedom' Bill because it would use federal power to force businesses to support and subsidize homosexuality and gender confusion ('transgender' lifestyles: think men in dresses, using female
restrooms)."
– From a Jan. 5 e-mail alert from "Americans For Truth."
"It's a decidedly American concept that in America, it's still perceived that being gay is bad and that being gay and out in Hollywood will hurt your career. That's a false concept that I don't believe. I don't buy into it. I'm not going to perpetuate it because it's not true. I dare you to name one person who came out and their career went to the —- after. If anything, it will help. All the comings-out have helped."
– Mario Lavendeira of PerezHilton.com fame to the Los Angeles Daily News, Jan. 6.
"I guess I come from a more eclectic background [than my husband] and so it's [same-sex marriage] less problematic, I think, probably for me. But I think both sides of this argument understand the desire for equality and equal treatment. I don't think there is anybody who is for or against it who doesn't understand it and I don't think there's anybody who is for or against it who doesn't understand the trouble people have. … [I]t just seems something that they've not been around. Of course, they haven't because we haven't had it in this country."
– Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, to ABC News, Dec. 31.
