"There is a lack of leadership from the top (on repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell). Our largest LGBT advocacy group (the Human Rights Campaign) is in Washington to demand it for us, and needs to stop making excuses for our self-described 'fierce advocate' and demand that he (President Obama) be that."

--Blogger Andy Towle, Towleroad.com, Feb. 16.

"I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems. On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving. I don't know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East -- you're as good as dead."

--Elton John to Parade magazine, Feb. 17.

"I'd always choose someone younger. I wanted to smother them with love. I'd take them around the world, try to educate them. One after another they got a Cartier watch, a Versace outfit, maybe a sports car. They didn't have jobs. They were reliant on me. I did this repeatedly. In six months they were bored and hated my guts because I'd taken their lives and self-worth away."

--Elton John to Parade magazine, Feb. 17.

"Princess Diana, Gianni Versace, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, all dead. Two of them shot outside their houses. None of this would have happened if they hadn't been famous. Fame attracts lunatics. I never had a bodyguard, ever, until Gianni died. I don't like celebrity anymore."

--Elton John to Parade magazine, Feb. 17.

"What an incredible worldwide treasure Elton John continues to be! ... He uses his fame and popularity to be one of the best gay activists gay people have ever had. I will never forget the wonderful things he did for me when I had my liver transplant in 2001. I had never met the man. A phone rang in my room at Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh. 'Hi, Larry, this is Elton. How you doing?' I was in Pittsburgh for six months of recovery. Every single week a gorgeous bouquet of flowers was delivered to where my partner and I were staying."

--Veteran activist Larry Kramer in a Feb. 18 e-mail.

"The prime minister of Canada came to see me, and what was he talking about? Gays. Prime Minister Gordon Brown came to see me, and what was he talking about? Gays. Mrs. Clinton rang me. What was she talking about? Gays."

--Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to The New York Times, Feb. 12. A bill pending in Uganda's Parliament, the "Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009," would imprison for life anyone convicted of "the offense of homosexuality," punish "aggravated homosexuality" -- including repeat offenders and anyone who is HIV-positive and has gay sex -- with the death penalty, forbid "promotion of homosexuality" and incarcerate gay-rights defenders, and jail individuals for up to three years if they fail to report within 24 hours the existence of all LGBT people and LGBT sympathizers they know of.

"I've lived with the same man for 23 years, and much of the film (A Single Man) is taken from my own life. I will have someone still say to me 'your lifestyle.' And I say: 'My lifestyle? What is that?' I live with somebody I love. We make dinner at home together. We lie around and read books and watch television and walk our dogs and go on vacation and argue occasionally -- that's a lifestyle? ... That's what I wanted to depict -- just a very straightforward love story."

--Director Tom Ford to the Pittsburgh gay newspaper Out, February issue.

"To a degree unimaginable as recently as 2004 -- when Karl Rove and George W. Bush ran a national campaign exploiting fear of gay people -- there is now little political advantage to spewing homophobia. Indeed, anti-gay animus is far more likely to repel voters than attract them."

--New York Times columnist Frank Rich, Feb. 6.

"Now that explicit anti-gay animus is an albatross, those who oppose gay civil rights are driven to invent ever loopier rationales for denying those rights, whether in the military or in marriage. (Sen. Orrin) Hatch, for instance, limply suggested ... that a repeal of 'don't ask' would lead to gay demands for 'special rights.' Such arguments, both preposterous and disingenuous, are mere fig leaves to disguise the phobia that can no longer dare speak its name."

--New York Times columnist Frank Rich, Feb. 6.

"Twenty years ago the military were the strong advocates of Don't Ask, Don't Tell when I was secretary of defense. I think things have changed significantly since then. I see that Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has indicated his belief that we ought to support a change in the policy. So, I think my guess is the policy will be changed. I think that society has moved on. I think it's partly a generational question. I'm reluctant to second-guess the military in this regard because they're the ones that have got to make the judgment about how these policies affect the military capability of our units, and that first requirement that you have to look at all the time is whether they're still capable of achieving their mission, and does the policy change -- i.e., putting gays in the force -- affect their ability to perform their mission. When the (Joint) Chiefs come forward and say, 'We think we can do it,' then it strikes me that it's time to reconsider the policy, and I think Adm. Mullen said that."

--Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on the ABC-TV show This Week, Feb. 14.

"Bloggers this week called for the president to take the lead, but also focused their attention on the Human Rights Campaign, the most powerful gay rights group in the world, which has been accused of championing repeal (of Don't Ask, Don't Tell) publicly, while privately assuring the White House that it can continue to go slow. Some feel that HRC would rather fundraise for several years on the illusion of momentum than actually help to achieve repeal. If HRC wants to disabuse the community of that suspicion, it will need to ensure that its prized access to Washington power is used to have a real impact, rather than to enjoy that access for its own sake. One reasonable option would be to publicly tell the president that it will not endorse him for re-election if he does not secure repeal in his first term, a promise that Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said he believed the president would keep."

--Nathaniel Frank, author of Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America, writing at the Huffington Post, Feb. 17.

"(Sarah Palin) is capable of generating a personality cult -- much, much more so than Obama, because she can harness Christianism to her divine destiny. The power of this kind of appeal -- of a charismatic, beautiful woman, an icon of the pro-life cause, persecuted by the evil elites, demonized by libruls, and commanding the biggest military on earth -- should not in my view be under-estimated. Know fear."

--Gay writer Andrew Sullivan on his blog, Feb. 6.

"GLAAD has absolutely nothing to show for its outsized megaphone and engorged wallet except the sniveling press releases that are issued every time a gay-friendly celebrity uses the word 'fag.' A computer program could do the same thing. More than ignoring important issues, GLAAD diverts attention away from them. Time to throw the fat, loud drunk bitch out of the gay bar."

--TheSword.com, Feb. 12.

"GLAAD is beyond useless. Did you know that GLAAD once described -- way back in teh (sic) day -- 'Savage Love' as an anti-gay hate crime? Because I used the word fag. So this 'F-word' crapola isn't new with them. And for the record: fag, fags, faggot, faggoty, faggery."

--Gay writer Dan Savage on his blog, Feb. 12.