Compiled By Howard Israel
S/he said
"To Rick Santorum and the rest of the GOP field, my marriage will have no value because my relationship itself has no value. As far as gay relationships, Ron Paul ignores them, but he's like an old coot on a front porch with a rifle looking for varmints, and he has forgotten half of what he ever said anyway. Newt Gingrich demeans them, but he demeans everything, and he will turn it around and tell us that our problems are our fault. Mitt Romney was for them before he was against them, and he believes we shouldn't discriminate until we should discriminate. But Santorum can't imagine a healthy gay relationship. It literally pains him to talk about it. In addition to comparing gay sex to sex with a dog, whenever he mentions the 'sanctity of marriage,' his face scrunches into a furrowed scowl that resembles a constipated altar boy about to have a gigantic bowel movement. Watch him. He really does look like he's about to crap in his pants."
-Jim David, comedian and writer, in his column titled "Attention, GOP Candidates: I Have Family Values, Too," http://www.huffingtonpost.com, Feb. 17.
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"The people in the pew are further along on this issue than those of us in the pulpit."
-Rev. Delman Coates, senior pastor at the 8,000-member Mount Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, Maryland, one of two Baptist preachers who testified in support of the bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in a hearing, in an article titled "Speaking out for same-sex marriage law, black minister stands apart," about the opposition to same-sex marriage in the African-American church community, http://www.washingtonpost.com, Feb. 13. Recent polls show 53 percent of African-American respondents opposed to same-sex marriage; African-Americans are 29 percent of the Maryland's population.
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"We're human and we went through difficult times. The marriage ran its course. The right to marry wasn't meant to guarantee that gay couples would live happily ever after, but to provide a basic human civil liberty. (Our) marital problems were no different than if the two parties had been a man and woman. Gays and lesbians shouldn't be held to a different standard when granted the same civil rights as everyone else. What is the standard to expect when you integrate equality. We're just like anybody else and that's all they can expect of us."
-Robin Tyler, in an interview about her divorce from Diane Olson, http://www.NBClosangeles.com, Feb. 08. Tyler and Olsen, having known each other for 40 years and were a couple for 18, were the first same-sex couple to wed in LA before Prop 8 passed and among 14 same-sex couples who originally challenged Prop 8 in the 2008 lawsuit that went to the CA Supreme Court.
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"We're here today to make history in this great state… it is a day that historians will mark as a milestone for equal rights in this state. …We stood for equality and we did it together. I'm proud of who and what we are as a state. I'm proud that our same-sex couples will no longer be treated as separate, but equal. They will be equal in the great state of Washington. I'm proud that the children in our schools and neighborhoods will no longer have to wonder why their loving parents are considered somewhat different than other loving parents."
-Gov. Chris Gregoire (D-WA), as she signed the bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Washington state, making it the seventh in the nation to offer marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples, http://thinkprogress.org, Feb. 13.
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