Quote of the Week Archives

September 19, 2005
"Equality is equality, period. When I leave this Legislature, I want to be able to tell my grandchildren I stood up for dignity and rights for all."
- CA State Sen. Liz Figueroa, joining her colleagues in an historic vote to end discrimination in marriage. State representatives were urged to vote for equal rights and fairness by a broad coalition of individuals and organizations, including the California NAACP and the United Farm Workers.
San Francisco Chronicle,9/1/2005

September 15, 2005
"When I looked in the eyes of the children [of same-sex couples], I decided that I don't feel marriage [equality] has hurt the Commonwealth in any way. In fact I would say it has had a good effect for the children in these families."
- State Senator James E. Timilty (D), after a sound vote of 157-to-39 rejecting a Mass. ballot measure to ban marriage
New York Times, 9/14/2005

September 8, 2005
"[L]ove conquers fear, principle conquers politics and equality conquers injustice, and the Governor can now secure his legacy as a true leader by signing this bill."
- Geoff Korrs, executive director of Equality California, San Francisco Chronicle, September 6, 2005

September 4, 2005
"The nine same-sex couples and one bereaved gay man who are suing Maryland for the right to marry say that they are not asking for creation of a new right, just the chance to share in one that has been fundamental for heterosexuals."
- Mary Otto
Washington Post Staff Writer
August 31, 2005

August 28, 2005
"How dangerously cruel that because we are gay, some people want you to believe our responsibility for each other, our lives and our histories, shouldn't count."
Editorial in the Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2005

-Brian O'Leary Bennett, Board member of Equality California and of the State Executive Committee of the California Republican Party

August 21, 2005
"I see no problem with gay couples marrying. It's a decision between two people -- the government has no business interfering. I remember when it was against the law for Blacks and Whites to be married..."
- Jocelyn Elders, Former Surgeon General, Tri-Valley Herald , 3/14/04, "Elders defend marriage for same-sex couples"

August 15, 2005
"There has been zero negative effect [...] by the decision to allow same-sex marriages. That is clear to people in Mass. No one -- credibly -- argues now that this has had a negative effect on anybody. We knew that would be the case."
-U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., to the Seattle Gay News, July 29, 2005

August 7, 2005
"Marriage is a stabilizing force in society [and] providing the stability of marriage for same-sex couples and their families can only benefit all of society."
-Dr. Jack Drescher, New York City psychiatrist, after the APA board's backing of the freedom to marry
Southern Voice, August 4, 2005

July 31, 2005
Civil unions are humiliating [and] embarrassing. [I]n essence [we will] be officially marginalized. I'm very hopeful that is a temporary step on our way to being considered a full family deserving the same respect as other families.
- Jeffrey Busch, part of a Connecticut couple applying for a civil union albeit reluctantly,
July 29, 2004
The Advocate

July 25, 2005
"Other than telling us how to live, think, marry, pray, vote, invest, educate our children and, now, die, I think the Republicans have done a fine job of getting government out of our personal lives."
-Letter to the Editor, Portland Oregonian, June 19, 2005

July 18, 2005
"It is true that [gays & lesbians] are only a minority, but their triumph is everyone's triumph. It is also the triumph of those who oppose this law, even though they do not know this yet: because it is the triumph of liberty.
-Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero

July 11, 2005
"The promise of democracy is fulfilled by minority rights, and equal justice under the rule of law, and an inclusive society in which every person belongs."
- George W. Bush in Latvia
May 6, 2005

July 4, 2005
Withholding a marriage certificate remains one of the few remaining ways of limiting full citizenship to some among us who are perceived to be alien or 'other.' How do we square this with the frequent biblical admonition to 'treat the alien in our midst as a citizen?' Not to tolerate. Not to grant second class status. But to treat as citizens.
-June 28, 2005, UCC President,
Rev. John H. Thomas in his speech endorsing a marriage resolution just days before the annual meeting
of the General Synod

June 30, 2005
"We were not the first, but I am sure we will not be the last. After us will come many other countries, driven, ladies and gentlemen, by two unstoppable forces: freedom and equality."
- Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, speaking to Parliament just before its vote to end marriage discrimination

June 26, 2005
"We're really all alike. We're in love, we want to have a family, we want to have the protections that marriage gives us, but most of all, we want to proclaim to the world that love. Unless you are willing to look me in the face and say that I am not a human being just as you are, you have no right to deny me access to marriage in this state or anywhere else."
- California Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, LA Times article, June 2, 2005

June 19, 2005
"Individual rights and human dignity are vulnerable when they depend for protection on the will of the majority or the good faith of those in power."
- MA Chief Justice Margaret Marshall, defending judicial independence

June 13, 2005
"For me, it's a matter of justice and fairness...we don't want to move backwards and take rights away from people. That's not what good people do, and we're good people in Wisconsin."
Connie Scharlau, who helped pass a Lutheran Church resolution against WI's proposed anti-gay constitutional amendment

June 12, 2005
"The history of civil rights in this country and in the great state of California show that there are often many steps forward and back, but in the end equality and justice shines through the gray areas. Equality has no borders, and deserving same-sex couples should have the opportunity to secure and safeguard their families."
Geoffrey Kors, Executive Director of Equality California

June 5, 2005
"Even with the setbacks..."
Joe Solmonese President, Human Rights Campaign. HRC report

May 29, 2005
"Continue fighting..."
NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer urging gay activists to fight for the freedom to marry. 5/22/05

May 22, 2005
"In some respects, traditionalists may be fighting for a lost cause...."
Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan in an interview with the Washington Times. 5/17/05

May 16, 2005
"It's been nearly a year since the commonwealth allowed marriage..."
>Editors of the Arlington Advocate

May 12, 2005
"I will never understand those who proclaim love as the foundation of life, while denying so radically protection, understanding and affection to our neighbors, our friends, our relatives, our colleagues."
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, in his state of the nation speech criticizing Church opposition to legal equality.

May 9, 2005
"In a place like California, you cannot possibly work for rights if you don't work for gay rights. You either believe in the rights of everyone or you are in the wrong business."
Alice A. Huffman, California NAACP President.

May 2, 2005
"I am especially saddened for my daughter, Katie..."
Portland Mayor Tom Potter on the Oregon Supreme Court ruling that voided 3,000 marriages. (4/14/05)

April 25, 2005
"We will not destroy the fabric of society..."
Providence mother Wendy Becker, testifying in the Rhode Island State House (4/12/05)

April 18, 2005
"Part of being a leader is moving people out of their comfort zone..."
Newburgh City Court Judge B. Harold Ramsey at a New York State Bar Association meeting urging the legislature to extend marriage to gay couples. (4/4/05)

April 11, 2005
"Personally, I think the conservative right wing has overstated their mandate, just like they did in the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case. Once people hear that benefits are being taken away, they don't like it. They say, hey, wait a second, that's not right."
Dennis Patrick, father to three sons and two foster children with partner Tom Patrick, on Michigan's removal of domestic partner benefits.

January 13, 2005
"I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people."
Coretta Scott King, at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Creating Change conference, Atlanta, GA, November 9, 2000.

January 10, 2005
"I can't say everyone's been supportive. But when you're fighting for civil rights, you don't make everyone happy. To me, faith and being spiritual... means looking out for your fellow man. I think I'm on the right side of a moral issue."
SF City Attorney Dennis Herrera, a non-gay Catholic, explaining his support for gay people's freedom to marry. (12/22/04)

January 3, 2005
"The right to marry is a right for everyone, without distinction. It cannot be understood as a privilege... The recognition of homosexuals' rights eradicates an unjustified discrimination."
Spain's Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, Deputy Prime Minister, announcing final approval for equal marriage slated to become law in February 2005 (12/20/04).

December 27, 2004
"[The couples' lawsuit is] not so much what marriage is about, but who gets to be married and participate in those benefits."
Judge Richard A. Kramer, Superior Court Judge, at beginning of California'a freedom to marry case (12/22/04).

December 22, 2004
"When you're fighting for civil rights, you don't make everyone happy."
Dennis Herrera, San Francisco City Attorney, a non-gay Catholic, explaining his support for the freedom to marry movement. (12/22/04)

December 20, 2004
"I do not believe you can have two classes of citizens."
Paul Martin, Canada's Prime Minister on marriage equality (12/10/04)

December 13, 2004
"An enlightened state cannot make a distinction between heterosexual couples and same-sex couples, and is obligated to defend the value of equality and the fundamental right of every individual to establish a family unit."
Zahava Gal-On, lawmaker from Israel's political party, Yahad, on recognizing financial and property rights of gay couples (12/9/04)

December 6, 2004
"What hurts most is that were the situation reversed, and your rights as a Christian were somehow imperiled, your marriage at risk of discrimination, I would be the first to stand up for you."
One gay man's moral plea to his non-gay sister

November 29, 2004
"The rules you apply to yourself are the true test of your moral values."
Ronnie Earle, Travis County, TX, District Attorney, on the GOP's post-election overrreaching to protect elected members (11/23/04).

November 22, 2004
"This so-called Christian ideal of being against gay marriage is neither American nor Christian. I think it's un-American to discriminate against fellow citizens, and God does not call upon Christians to be vigilantes to punish people that they perceive him not to like."
-Paul Cuthbertson, 53, Atlanta, interviewed in a nationwide post-election poll (11/18-21/04).

November 18, 2004
"If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves. We should, therefore, protest openly everything ... that smacks of discrimination or slander."
Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955), from "'Certain Unalienable Rights,' What the Negro Wants" (1944); she founded Bethune Cookman College and the National Council of Negro Women.

November 16, 2004
"On measures of psychosocial well-being, school functioning, and romantic relationships and behaviors ... teens with same-sex parents [are] as well adjusted as their peers with opposite-sex parents."
Karen Pallarito, HealthDay, reporting on the results of a new study (11/16/04)

November 9, 2004
"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to it's true principles."
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Taylor, June 4, 1798, after the passage of the Sedition Act.

November 5, 2004
"After reading the newspapers this morning, we're getting a little carried away with the cultural and religious interpretation of this election.... It was a vote to some extent on values, but it was also a vote on John Kerry and how the American public felt about the way President Bush handled the war on terrorism."
Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, warning against placing too much emphasis on 'values voters.' New York Times (11/5/04)

November 1, 2004
"When you're in the midst of a movement it can be hard to feel the movement...but we are moving and we are going to win."
- Kate Kendall, National Center for Lesbian Rights, speaking at the Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (P-FLAG) convention in Salt Lake City (10/22/04)

October 25, 2004
"Homosexuals are not monogamous. They want to destroy the institution of marriage... It will destroy marriage. It will destroy the Earth."
James Dobson, Focus on the Family founder, campaigning in Oklahoma for a conservative candidate for the U.S. Senate.

October 18, 2004
"Based on current law, the retirement system will recognize a same-sex Canadian marriage in the same manner as an opposite-sex New York marriage."
Alan Hevesi, New York State Comptroller, after a state insurance department employee inquired about how his Canada marriage would affect retirement benefits for him, his male spouse, and their two adopted children. (10/14/04)

October 11, 2004
"The day of their wedding, I did not feel that anything was changing ... I didn't cry like my sister. But I do feel different now that my parents are married, and I feel that people treat me differently. I am beginning to feel like a regular kid ... I feel like my parents are just a little more like other parents... Now other kids can't say that I don't have a real family."
Robbie Barnett-Kemper, 12, talking about his mothers marrying in Canada

October 5, 2004
"Radical Islamists were surely watching in July when the Senate voted on procedural grounds to do away with the Federal Marriage Amendment. This is like handing moral weapons of mass destruction to those who use America's decadence to recruit more snipers and hijackers and suicide bombers."
- Charles Colson, in Christianity Today Magazine (9/23/04)

"... And thanks to my wonderful husband Mark. Someday soon we can have a legal marriage license and you can make an honest homosexual out of me."
September 27, 2004
Tony Kushner, playwright for "Angels of America," accepting the Emmy Award for the HBO miniseries adaptation (9/19/04)

September 20, 2004
"I'm trying to find the correct name for it ... this utter absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity of men marrying men... I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I'm gonna be blunt and plain; if one ever looks at me like that, I'm gonna kill him and tell God he died... They all ought to marry a pig, and live with it forever... And I thank God that president Bush has stated that we need a constitutional amendment that says marriage is between a man and a woman."
Jimmy Swaggart, televangelist, broadcast on BET cable & satellite (9/18/04)

September 15, 2004
"The Legislature stated that the rationale for the state DOMA is, 'It is a compelling interest of the State of Washington to reaffirm its historical committment to the institution of marriage...and to protect that institution.' But if a historical commitment is the protected thing, then such a bald justification would always prevent any change in any state law. The Legislature could always say that this law can not be compared to the Constitution because the Legislature has a compelling interest in maintaining the status quo on any subject. It is a conclusory statement that is devoid of any meaningful content. The shell is described but the almond is missing."
Hon. Richard D. Hicks, Superior Court, Thurston County, WA, in his ruling, (9/7/04)

September 1, 2004
"The beginning of the Declaration of Independence says, 'All men are created equal.' I take those words literally. There's no 'unless you're gay.' I don't see the purpose in denying people access to a right that most of us take for granted. I don't see it as very American to carve out exceptions to our Constitution for a certain class of people."
Ron Reagan on marriage equality in 'The Advocate,' August 31, 2004

August 30, 2004
"Freedom means freedom for everyone. People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to."
Vice-President Dick Cheney, (8/24/04) -- the same week the Republican Convention platform committee adopted a fiercely anti-gay stance opposing marriage equality and ANY family protections under law for same-sex couples and their kids.

August 23, 2004
"I think right now our law says that we don't accept same-sex marriage.... If the people change their minds, then so be it. If the courts change their mind, then so be it. Then we will follow those laws."
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in an August 13th radio interview, according to the Los Angeles Times (8/15/04).

August 12, 2004
"Del is 83 years old and I am 79... After being together for more than 50 years, it is a terrible blow to have the rights and protections of marriage taken away from us. At our age, we do not have the luxury of time."
Phyllis Lyon, on receiving the news that her marriage to Del Martin--the very first in San Francisco--would be nullified by the California Supreme Court's August 12th technical ruling, though other cases are advancing.

August 6, 2004
"It doesn't matter which group is oppressed. What matters is that no group is oppressed."
Keith Boykin, National Black Justice Coalition

August 2, 2004
"We've had to pay thousands of dollars over the years for wills, living wills, durable powers of attorney and even for a 'relationship contract' - all the legal protections money can buy. But you can't buy equality."
Beth Reis and Barbara Steele, together 27 years, have 11 grand-kids and one great-grandson. Their challenge to Washington State's denial of legal marriage to gay couples is being brought by the NW Women's Law Center and Lambda Legal. (Seattle Times)

July 26, 2004
"If it had not been for the Federal Courts, I wouldn't be standing here today, and many members of Congress who are people of color would not be here either. We don't want to go back. We want to go forward! To vote for this legislation, would be like members of Congress trying to stand in the courthouse door, just like Governor Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door to stop the integration of Alabama schools. Today it is gay marriage, tomorrow it will be something else."
Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) on the floor of the House, protesting the "court-stripping" legislation known as the "Marriage Protection Act." (7/22/04)

July 19, 2004
"Gay and lesbian couples exist. Theyre not going away."
Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), during last week's Senate debate on amending the Constitution to prevent gay couples from marrying.

July 12, 2004
"We meddle with the Constitution to our own peril. If we begin to treat the Constitution as our own personal sandbox, in which to build and destroy castles as we please, we risk diluting the grandeur of having a Constitution in the first place."
Bob Barr, former Republican Congressman from Georgia, sponsor of the 1996 so-called federal "Defense of Marriage Act," testifying in opposition to President Bush's proposed anti-gay constitutional amendment.

June 30, 2004
"We don't talk about gay marriage in the Netherlands. There's only one kind of marriage and it is open to everyone."
Henk Krol, Dutch publisher

June 28, 2004
"Children of the future Age,
Reading this indignant page;
Know that in a former time,
Love! sweet Love! was thought a crime."
William Blake (1757-1827)

June 21, 2004
"It felt cool to be reminded how much they love each other, but at the same time, I was troubled, too, because I wondered: In a world with so many problems, why is everybody making a damn fuss because two people love each other? My mothers are not giving guns to terrorists, and they're not selling drugs to kids, and they're certainly not destroying the sanctity of anything, and so the thought occurred to me - what the hell is wrong with people?"
Peter Hams, 24, after his two mothers married in Massachusetts, Boston Globe (6/2/04)

June 15, 2004
"There is, in fact, no better advertisement for gay marriage than gay marriages, which, of course, is exactly why religious conservatives fought so hard to block them from happening anywhere...The obvious fact evangelical leaders are trying to ignore is that while, no doubt, a majority of Americans oppose same-sex marriage, they don't oppose it all that strongly. It is not exactly biblical, it is an unknown and it 'feels' funny. But at some level they realize that contrary to conservative propaganda gay marriage will not harm them or their children personally."
Paul Varnell, opinion piece in the Chicago Free Press (5/19/04), following the beginning of legal marriages for same-sex couples in Massachusetts.

June 8, 2004
"The meanings of words change. Think of the word 'vote.' Initially, the vote was restricted to men with property. Then it was expanded to include men who had established residency. By the beginning of the Civil War, almost all adult white males could vote. Next, with the passage of the 15th Amendment, blacks, in theory, had the right to vote. Women were granted the vote in 1920. Finally, the vote was extended to everyone 18 years old and over....Each time the right to vote was extended, those who already had that right were indeed threatened. They could still vote, but their vote had less impact. But permitting two people of the same sex to form a union graced by the word 'marriage' does not jeopardize those already married."
Sherman Stein, opinion column in the Los Angeles Times (6/5/04)

June 1, 2004
"Last year, the whole community was gaga over what a wonderful guy Howard Dean was because he signed the civil unions bill. But that was nine months ago. Now that's not enough. What was a radical notion a year ago is now the default position."
U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., to The New York Observer, April 26, 2004.

May 19, 2004
"Sure, of course."
Laura Bush, asked whether she would invite a married gay couple to a state dinner at the White House. The First Lady also declined to endorse her husband's proposed constitutional amendment. Boston Globe, 5/20/04

May 14, 2004
"[W]ere we to make a regular practice of going back to...the debate after various anti-discriminatory laws were enacted--to check on the validity of the predictions made by their opponents--we would see a very clear pattern:

vivid forecasts of social upheaval

moral decay

interference with the legitimate rights of the majority of people to go about their business

the destruction of important social institutions

and other negative effects

Then, after adoption of the cause of all this worry:

none of the above."
Congressman Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts)

May 5, 2004
"Those opposed to equal marriage rights [say] they are not averse to private contracts that might amount to some sort of civil unions. 'See?' - they say. 'We don't hate gays. We just love marriage!' Yet in Virginia, a law was just passed that explicitly denies the validity of any such contracts, voids civil unions of any kind, under any name, and may eventually be struck down by the Supreme Court for the radicalism of its attempt to prevent even private legal arrangements to protect such things as hospital visitation. This was a Republican-sponsored measure, and exposes the lie that the Republican party is tolerant of gays but draws the line at marriage."
Andrew Sullivan blogging at 12:12:08 AM - MAY 6, 2004

May 4, 2004
"To suggest that Rosa Parks and the couple that are trying to marry in San Francisco are precisely the same is just not true...but there are enough similarities for us to be understanding of, and supportive of, any person who is discriminated against for any reason."
Julian Bond, NAACP Board Chair, quoted in the May 17, 2004 edition of The Nation.

May 3, 2004
"Marriage is ever-evolving, and as a heterosexual, you have nothing to fear."
Rep. Gordon Fox, Majority Leader, Rhode Island House of Representatives. In an impromptu speech at a marriage equality rally in Providence on March 31st, the Democrat told supporters that he, too, was gay and in a six-year relationship.

April 19, 2004
"[City clerks] shouldn't have to become the marriage police.... Now every time someone comes to obtain a marriage license from Rhode Island, I'm supposed to question if they're first cousins? And every time someone comes in from Nebraska, I'm supposed to make sure they're 19? I don't feel as though I should all of a sudden be challenging [same-sex couples] on marriage licenses, as we have never challenged people in the past."
David J. Rushford, City Clerk of Worcester, Massachusetts, in the Boston Globe, 4/17/04, about enforcing a rarely-enforced 1913 law.

April 8, 2004
"[D]ata on the effects of gay marriage are readily available from countries such Belgium and the Netherlands, which have already legalized it. In the Netherlands, it has become so much a part of the norm that leading newspapers barely mention it--nor do they report any social or moral collapse as a result."
Professor Robert S. Kirsner, UCLA, in The New Yorker, April 12, 2004, p.7

April 6, 2004
"How can the institution of marriage be threatened by people marrying? This is not a pro-marriage debate, it's an antigay debate. The absence of gay marriage in this country is a wrong that needs to be righted."
Columnist Chris Elliott, Seacoastonline.com (NH), April 7, 2004

March 25, 2004
"...I don't think that [gay couples] should be discriminated [against] in the Constitution and my goal is to defeat that resolution, and I'm not going to be sidetracked."
House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, questioned on Fox News about about marriage equality. (3/24/04)

March 15, 2004
"The heterosexual majority in this country can state...objections [to same-sex couples marrying] all it wishes, but in the end it comes back to power. Straight people have it and are not giving it up easily. Jesus and Paul remind Christians that we can dress that up any way we choose, but in the end it is nothing more than sin."
Rev. Jack McKinney, Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Raleigh, NC, Fifth Sunday after Epiphany (February 8, 2004)

March 8, 2004
"The idea of marriage between two people of the same sex is still very new, and for some unsettling, but we have been down this road before. This debate follows the same narrative arc as women's liberation, racial integration, disability rights and every other march of marginalized Americans into the mainstream. Same-sex marriage seems destined to have the same trajectory: from being too outlandish to be taken seriously, to being branded offensive and lawless, to eventual acceptance."
New York Times editorial board, March 7, 2004

March 1, 2004
"Intermarriage between negros or persons of color and Caucasians... within the United States... is forever prohibited."
Rep. Seaborn Roddenberry, Dec. 12, 1912, proposing a constitutional amendment, which did not pass, although 90% of Americans at the time opposed interracial marriage.

February 24, 2004
"I will say that I'm not supportive of amending the Constitution on this issue... I believe that this should go through the courts, and I think that we're at a point where it's not necessary."
David Dreier, a co-chairman of Bush's campaign in California in 2000, quoted by the Associated Press, 2/24/04.

February 23, 2004
"No, never. For part of the time it wasn't even something we wanted, during the women's movement. Women were looking at marriage with a very jaundiced eye. Marriage wasn't something that women wanted to get anywhere near. But we changed our minds. Separate but equal is not equal."
Longtime lesbian activist, Phyllis Lyon, responding to the question did she ever think she and her partner of 51 years, Del Martin, would be married.

February 14, 2004
"We've been waiting longer than Britney Spears' marriage lasted."
Andy Tabbat, standing with his partner, Barry Wolpa, in line with 590 other couples waiting to be married, February 13, 2004; quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle.

February 10, 2004
"A 1958 poll found that 96% of whites disapproved of marriages between blacks and whites (Deuteronomy 7:3 condemns interracial marriages). In 1959 a judge justified Virginia's ban on interracial marriage by declaring that 'Almighty God ... did not intend for the races to mix.' Someday, we will regard opposition to gay marriage as equally obtuse and old-fashioned."
Nicholas D. Kristof, in The New York Times Op-Ed column, December 3, 2003.

January 31, 2004
"From a libertarian point of view, you would say, "Yeah? So what?" You have to believe in total equality. People should be able to be what they want to be and do what they want--as long as they're not harming people."
Clint Eastwood, responding to a reporter's leading question that marriage equality "could be the polarizing issue of the presidential race."

January 27, 2004
"I do not want my heterosexual marriage diminished by turning it into an elitist, discriminatory, holier-than-thou institution. Our state representatives must have more meaningful and substantive things to do than to work toward changing the Massachusetts Constitution with regard to this subject. People of faith must have more good things to do in society than to value sanctimony over substance and sensibility."
CURTIS TURNER, in a Letter to the Editor of The Daily News, Newburyport, MA, January 27, 2004

January 12, 2004
"If civil unions were to encompass all of the legal rights that marriage does, then I would say, call it a civil union, call it marriage -- you can call it 'strawberries' for all I care .... Unfortunately, civil union does not carry with it the same rights as marriage does. [P]eople in homosexual relationships ought to be able to legitimatize those relationships on the same grounds as people in heterosexual relationships."
Former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun in an interview with the USA Today Editorial Board, November 24, 2003.

December 22, 2003
"As a straight woman and as a Protestant minister, it takes nothing away from me for people to have rights in a loving relationship."
Pastor Lorraine DeArmitt, Southold United Methodist Church, quoted in the Suffolk Times (NY), December 18, 2003

November 11, 2003
"I may well officiate at a same-sex marriage next year, after the Legislature has a chance to pass an enabling statute."
Former Governor of Massachusetts William Weld (Republican) after reading the Goodridge decision.
Boston Globe, 11/27/03

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