"Because no one has the right to deny another their life, even though they disagree with it, because everyone has the right to live the life they so desire if it doesn't harm another and because discrimination has no place in America, my vote will be for equality and against Proposition 8."
Actor Brad Pitt in a September 17 statement announcing a $100,000 contribution to the campaign to defeat the November 4 voter initiative Proposition 8

"Brokeback Mountain ... is the source of constant irritation in my private life. There are countless people out there who think the story is open range to explore their fantasies and to correct what they see as an unbearably disappointing story. They constantly send ghastly manuscripts and pornish rewrites of the story to me, expecting me to reply with praise and applause for 'fixing' the story. Beneath every mangled rewrite is the unspoken assumption that because they are men they can write this story better than a woman can."
Brokeback Mountain author Annie Proulx to The Wall Street Journal, September 5.

"Do I support granting same-sex benefits? Absolutely positively. The fact of the matter is that under the Constitution we should be granted -- same-sex couples should be able to have visitation rights in the hospitals, joint ownership of property, life insurance policies, etc. That's only fair. It's what the Constitution calls for. And so we do support it. We do support making sure that committed couples in a same-sex marriage are guaranteed the same constitutional benefits as it relates to their property rights, their rights of visitation, their rights to insurance, their rights of ownership as heterosexual couples do."
Joe Biden during the vice presidential debate, October 2.

"If there's any kind of suggestion at all from my answer that I would be anything but tolerant of adults in America choosing their partners, choosing relationships that they deem best for themselves -- you know, I am tolerant and I have a very diverse family and group of friends and even within that group you would see some who may not agree with me on this issue, some very dear friends who don't agree with me on this issue. But in that tolerance also, no one would ever propose, not in a McCain-Palin administration, to do anything to prohibit, say, visitations in a hospital or contracts being signed, negotiated between parties. But I will tell Americans straight up that I don't support defining marriage as anything but between one man and one woman. "
Sarah Palin during the vice presidential debate, October 2.

"I felt like I was in Hollywood at a very special time when all of us gay people kind of found each other and we were like: 'You go. No, you go out. No, you come out!' And we all kind of just jumped in, one after the other. Basically, we just keep ascending, we keep moving up."
Singer Melissa Etheridge to the Oregon gay newspaper Just Out, August 15.

"When I'm elected mayor, I would die before allowing the pride parade tobe held in Jerusalem. They want to be proud? They're allowed to. They want to demonstrate? Fine. But the streets of Jerusalem are a symbol and parading on them would be an aggressive act against our tradition, against our values and against our morale. I would lie on the ground in order to block the march and would even die before I approve the pride parade in the city."
Jerusalem mayoral candidate Arcadi Gaydamak at an August 25 press conference.

"I don't see the marriage of two loving individuals as a threat to anyone else's relationship. I really don't understand the gut reaction that these people are having (to same-sex marriage). I think there's entirely too much preoccupation with what people do behind their bedroom doors. I don't understand why they have to spend time thinking about it, worrying about it, wondering about it. I don't get it."
Jeanne Phillips, who writes the Dear Abby column, to the Palm Springs gay magazine The BottomLine, September 26.