Compiled by Howard Israel
S/he said
"This case's precedent would put religious beliefs above the law and other First Amendment guarantees if Ward wins. If a counselor can deny health services to a LGBT student for religious purposes, then would it not follow that academic and financial advisers could do the same thing? If an LGBT student does not have the right to counseling or advising at a public university, then would it not follow that other minority groups could face the same discrimination under the umbrella of religion?"
– Editorial in Central Michigan University's student newspaper, titled "EMU's dismissal of former counseling student does not violate First Amendment," about Bill Schuette, Michigan's Attorney General, who sided with Julea Ward, former EMU student who claims her dismissal from the university for refusing to counsel gay and lesbian patients violated her religious belief against homosexuality, http://www.cm-life.com, March 16.
"He is a deeply religious man. Or so he says."
– Landsdowne, Pa. Police Chief Dan Kortan, about John Joe Thomas, a 28-year-old who confessed to the murder of 70-year-old Murray Seidman, who had befriended him and made him executor and sole beneficiary of his will, Associated Press, http://www.hosted.ap.org, March 18. Thomas is charged with beating Seidman to death by hitting him 10 times in the head with a sock filled with rocks and batteries, because he believes that homosexuals should be stoned to death.
"Ordinary equality for members of the LGBT community is going to take sacrifice. That sacrifice is going to include engaging in sit-ins, pickets and direct actions where participants are willing to be arrested and mistreated – as well as costing us something financially. We should all already know that it's going to take more effort than just lobbying alone to see the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act pass into law."
– Autumn Sandeen, board member of GetEQUAL, an LGBT rights organization, in her column titled "It Costs Something To Get Equal," about the 13 activists who handcuffed themselves to the White House fence to protest "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" before it was repealed, http://www.pamshouseblend.com, March 21.
"No one ever talks about how this tug of war between the African-American and LGBT community over equality can negatively affect us LGBTs of color. For me personally, it's an awful psychological rending, a forced dividing of myself into two halves which have no business separating in the first place."
– Alvin McEwen, in his column titled "From One Black Man to the Black Community Stop the Homophobia," http://blogs.alternet.org, March 14.
