In her first gay press interview, Christian-crossover legend Amy Grant welcomed the gay community to church, a boy bander admitted to being a "fag hag" and Britney Spears called you a girl. Here's a look back at 2013 and what these celebs - and a whole bunch more - told BTL's own entertainment editor Chris Azzopardi.
"We both know how it feels to be hated just for who we are - not for doing anything, bothering anyone, murdering anyone or being arrested. Just for being us." - Natalie Maines, of the Dixie Chicks, on connecting with gay fans after the George W. Bush "incident"
"I know that the religious community has not been very welcoming, but I just want to stress that the journey of faith brings us into community, but it's really about one relationship. The journey of faith is just being willing and open to have a relationship with God. And everybody is welcome. Everybody." - Amy Grant
"I get inspiration from them on almost all of my songs. They're somewhat girls, so it's so inspiring to do stuff that they like to hear. Whatever I do for each record is definitely inspired by them." - Britney Spears
"I find myself being attracted to dudes all the time." - Brendon Urie, frontman of Panic! at the Disco
"The hard truth that I could see, and the way I approached it, was him getting HIV is what gave him his purpose in life." - Matthew McConaughey on playing the real-life Ron Woodruff in "Dallas Buyers Club"
"(For me, it was) a really beautiful experience and a role of a lifetime." - Jared Leto on playing trans character Rayan in "Dallas Buyers Club"
"I won't allow myself to be a slave to my own interpretation of myself nor the interpretations that people may have of me." - Janelle Monae on lesbian rumors
"Real life is so much more beautiful and rich and nuanced than those oversimplified fantasies, but you won't feel that beauty if you're too busy comparing it to the 42 reasons why your favorite actor is the perfect man. There's no such thing as a perfect man. Every human being is a unique person." - Joseph Gordon-Levitt on BuzzFeed's article "42 reasons why Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the perfect man"
"I don't know how to make anyone a better gay man. I really don't. What am I supposed to say … listen to more showtunes?" - Courtney Love
"Everyone always says, 'When you look at a boy band, one of them has to be gay.' No, they don't. Instead of me being gay, I'm the fag hag." - AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys
"It really is just a phenomenal dream, and I hope to stay in it until I close my eyes for the last time." - Merry Clayton, singer/star of "20 Feet from Stardom"
"There used to be songs about black and white differences and that's no longer an issue - and it shouldn't be. And this shouldn't be either. I would love to change that about country music." - Kacey Musgraves on the gay reference in her song, "Follow Your Arrow"
"Things are changing. You have to just get your foot in the door so it doesn't close, and then keep widening that door till it opens." - Cyndi Lauper
"Sometimes I'd use a number. I'd go, 'Oh, I think he should be at a 7 here.'" - Steven Soderbergh on his flamboyancy scale for Michael Douglas, who plays Liberace in "Behind the Candelabra"
"I have to do a reality show about the gays in Texas, because there's this whole gay culture in this really cowboy town that I live in that when guys break up, it's like, 'I'm gonna come get my cows off your place!' 'Well, I'm gonna take down the fence I built!' 'You better come get your mineral feeders!'" - Jewel
"I'm a straight man with, like, lesbian chemicals." - Jack Antonoff of fun.
"You have to be proud. In the end, who cares if I was cool or not. Did I make change? Did I help the world? That should be more important." - Tegan of Tegan and Sara on being an out lesbian
"I'll tell you what I don't feel good about: This film cannot get distribution in this country. Yeah, sit with that for a little bit. Sit with that! Don't get too rosy in your view of things." - Olympia Dukakis on her lesbian-themed road-trip movie, "Cloudburst"
"Do we need Jodie Foster to legitimize our cause? I mean, who fucking cares? Don't expect any one person to be the role model for the entire community. Everybody needs to do that for themselves." - Sandra Bernhard
"There's nothing subtle, I guess, about how we embrace gay culture - and there basically are no boundaries. We both push the envelope." - Dave Franco on he and his brother James
