"Like many of you who live in New Jersey, I've been following the progress of the marriage-equality legislation currently being considered in Trenton. I've long believed in and have always spoken out for the rights of same sex couples and fully agree with Governor Corzine when he writes that, 'The marriage-equality issue should be recognized for what it truly is -- a civil rights issue that must be approved to assure that every citizen is treated equally under the law.' I couldn't agree more with that statement and urge those who support equal treatment for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters to let their voices be heard now."

--Rocker Bruce Springsteen on his Web site, Dec. 8.

"Growing up in Wasilla ... I haven't ever seen a gay guy in Wasilla, I don't think. I mean, I've seen gay guys but, you know, once I started doing all these tours and everything ... I just, you know, they're people too. It doesn't matter to me. More fans. It's great."

--Levi Johnston, the father of Sarah Palin's grandchild, on CNN, Dec. 7.

"I guess I wanted to ... say that I'm a lesbian. It was a later-in-life recognition of that fact. ... I got involved with someone I never expected to get involved with and it was that kind of awakening and I never fought it because it was like, 'Oh, I understand why I had the issues I had early in my life.' I had a great deal of difficulty connecting with men in relationships. ... Sometimes, I assumed I was a bad picker, which I was indeed, but I also was involved with people who made me think, 'Oh, they're the problem,' because there were problems with the people I chose. It never occurred to me to think, 'Oh, it's me.'"

--Actress Meredith Baxter (Birney) from the TV shows Family and Family Ties, to the TV show Today, Dec. 2.

"It's been brought to my attention that this is a political act, even though that's not what it feels like to me—it just feels like personal exposure and it's uncomfortable. But my understanding is that so much research has been done that says that if anybody knows someone who's gay or lesbian, then when they are addressing gay or lesbian issues, political issues, that affect their rights, they are less likely to vote against them, to take away their rights. So ... if I can be that lesbian you know now, 'OK, well, if I vote this way, then that actually might affect this person I know, that Meredith.'"

--Actress Meredith Baxter (Birney) from the TV shows Family and Family Ties, to the TV show Today, Dec. 2.

"Oh my God, Meredith Baxter! She comes out at 62! She's become a character from the very kind of Lifetime movie she stars in!"

--The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, Dec. 3.

"Nice. New York now joining California in banning gay marriage. New York and California: the only two states in the country whose streets have disco rollerblading lanes. Not cool with gay marriage. Because New York and California aren't as progressive as Iowa!"

--The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, Dec. 3.

"Promises made were not honored. The LGBT community and all fair-minded New Yorkers have been betrayed. I am enraged, deeply disappointed and profoundly saddened by the vote today."

--Gay state Sen. Tom Duane, D-Manhattan, after the New York Senate voted down a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, Dec. 2.

"Christopher Rice just can't muster another clever status line about the defeat of marriage equality in another state. I just want to throw up on those fuckers."

--Author Christopher Rice, Ann's son, on Facebook after the New York Senate voted down a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, Dec. 2.

"It is time to seriously consider a more civil-rights-movement approach to fighting for our rights instead of pumping money into either (political) party in some sort of masochistic dance. We must consider a concerted and well-planned campaign of non-violent civil disobedience. Business as usual can not continue in this country as long as we are separated from the rest of our neighbors, families and friends who have full equality and freedom."

--Activist David Mixner writing at davidmixner.com after the New York Senate rejected a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, Dec. 3.

"As a community, we have to support only candidates who are 100 percent for equality ... and this includes support for marriage equality and for coverage for transition-related health care for transgender people. As a community, we must help to advance those candidates who support us all the way, and refuse to give to those candidates who do not. We must elect legislators, governors and other officials who will fully support our equality once they are in office."

--Equality California Executive Director Geoff Kors writing at lgbtpov.com, Dec. 5.

"We have to hold those legislators and elected officials who fail to vote for or support our equality accountable. Legislators must know that if they backpedal on or do not vote for our rights, it will impact them when election time rolls around again. These legislators risk their endorsements and campaign donations when they cave in to pressure from our opponents. In some districts, these legislators are putting their re-election on the line."

--Equality California Executive Director Geoff Kors writing at lgbtpov.com, Dec. 5.

"(I don't talk about my personal life) because I don't want to bore people stiff with my dreary, dysfunctional, endlessly repeating similar relationships that last from three weeks to three months to nine months or whatever."

--Gay actor Rupert Everett to Britain's The Guardian, Nov. 29.

"The handful of times a year it's bloody warm enough, I'll do it (go cruising). I'll do it on a nice summer evening. Quite often there are campfires up there. It's a much nicer place to get some quick and honest sex than standing in a bar, E'd off your tits shouting at somebody and hoping they want the same thing as you do in bed. DyaknowhatImean?"

--Singer George Michael to Britain's The Guardian, Dec. 5.

"I normally get up about 10 a.m., my PA will bring me a Starbucks, I'll have a look at my e-mails. At the moment I've got nothing that pressurized other than keeping an eye on the video they're making for the Christmas single. Then, if I'm in the mood, I'll come up to the office in Highgate, do some work, writing, backing tracks or whatever. Come home. Kenny will be here, the dogs are here. Maybe eat locally, hang out, and then probably go off and have a shag or have someone come here and have a shag ... that's probably a couple times a week."

--Singer George Michael to Britain's The Guardian, Dec. 5.

"Elton (John) will not be happy until I bang on his door in the middle of the night saying: 'Please, please, help me, Elton. Take me to rehab.' It's not going to happen. You know what I heard last week? ... Geri (Halliwell) told Kenny that Bono, having spoken to Elton, had approached Geri to say, 'What can we do for George?' This is what I have to deal with because I don't want to be part of that social clique. All I'd have to do to stop it is hang out in London, so people realize I don't look close to death."

--Singer George Michael to Britain's The Guardian, Dec. 5.

"I was there from the beginning (of AIDS). A lot of young people weren't there at the beginning of it. I was there in the '70s when suddenly this very strange thing started happening to friends of mine. Even though I was on the road most of the time, I was very much aware of it. By 10 years into it I had lost half my phone book. All these people that I had worked with and that I knew were gone, and at a relatively young age. I had never thought that I would be that close to death; it was shocking. ... So whenever anybody asks me to do something for this disease, I'm there."

--Singer Barry Manilow to the Palm Springs gay magazine The BottomLine, Dec. 4.

"I would probably never, if I wanted to, work for, say, the HRC, because anything that I ever did for them, the right wing would come back and say, 'This is the same guy who called such-and-such preacher a douchenozzle.' And the Internet is forever and when anyone ever gets a job of any sort of visibility, the first thing the right wing does is try and look for anything that they might have said that could hurt them."

--Blogger Joe. My. God., Joe Jervis, to this column, in an interview published Dec. 1.

"It's (blogging) almost become a compulsion with me to the point where I can't even go on vacation; I have to haul up the laptop and see what's happened and post. I don't think I've gone a day without posting for years."

--Blogger Joe. My. God., Joe Jervis, to this column, in an interview published Dec. 1.

"My (reduced) interest in like going out and carousing and taking advantage of all gay New York City has to offer fortunately dovetailed perfectly with my increasing blogging, so, you know, I don't know what I'd be doing if I wasn't blogging as much as I do. Because, yes, I've got all of glittery, glamorous Manhattan lying at my feet but even if I wasn't blogging, I'd be, 'Well, you know, how many times can you go to the Empire State, and I don't even want to go to bars.'"

--Blogger Joe. My. God., Joe Jervis, to this column, in an interview published Dec. 1.

"I feel overwhelmed right now because I'm not reading (online) and I'm doing this interview instead, but, you know, it's how I regularly feel if I'm out or whatever. It's like there is always a constant barrage of news and things happening, so the struggle to keep on top of it is a constant challenge and I think anybody who's in news these days understands the same thing—that it's just, you know, like a 24-hour thing and to stay on top of it, you just have to constantly keep reading."

--Towleroad.com's Andy Towle to this column in an interview published Nov. 21.

"I find I am, almost against my will, utterly delighted by the Tiger Woods crash-and-burn who-woulda-thunk slut-of-the-week pornstars-n-skanks flameout shockfest circus funhouse megaspectacle."

--San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford, Dec. 11.