Compiled by Howard Israel
S/he Said
"Why is there always this push to keep history as white, male and straight as possible? And why is it that so many of us who are not white or male or straight so complicit in that paradigm? Has white supremacy and its awful Puritanism been so successful that we want to pretend like a person's sex life is irrelevant or, worse, doesn't exist – particularly if they are queer?"
– Son of Baldwin, in his blog titled "X-Factor," about revelations concerning Malcolm X's sexuality in the new biography "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention," http://sonofbaldwin.blogspot.com, April 6.
"An estimated 3.5 percent of adults in the U.S. identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual and an estimated 0.3 percent of adults are transgender. This implies that there are approximately 9 million LGBT Americans, a figure roughly equivalent to the population of New Jersey."
– Gary Gates, demographer-in-residence, Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, citing key findings in his new study titled "How Many Americans Are Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender?", http://law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute, April 1. Gates derived his estimates from five studies that asked subjects about their sexual orientation.
"This is the new NAACP. This is a human rights organization, and we have an obligation to fight discrimination at all levels. I think for the NAACP to be alive and effective, it has to retool. This is a human rights organization and we need to address the needs of all marginalized groups."
– Ravi Perry, openly gay Clark University political science professor and the new NAACP chapter president in Worcester, Mass., in an article titled "New NAACP seeing more gay, diverse chapter leaders," http://bostonherald.com, March 23.
"What's the major factor that allows homosexuals – a tiny fraction of the whole population – to dictate major changes in cultural morality?"
– In a poll on http://OneNewsNow.com, the "news" site run by the American Family Association, April 7. Of 8412 people, 15.5 percent voted for money, 8 percent for half-truths, 32 percent for intimidation, and 44.5 percent for "Satan is on their side."
