Arts & Entertainment
Outspoken: The year in quotes
The best celeb quips and barbs from 2011 with Cher, Betty White, k.d. lang, Sean Maher, Wanda Sykes and more
Charles Barkley
CHARLES BARKLEY
“It bothers me when I hear these reporters and jocks get on TV and say: ‘Oh, no guy can come out in a team sport. These guys would go crazy.’ First of all, quit telling me what I think. I’d rather have a gay guy who can play than a straight guy who can’t play.”
NBA Hall of Famer and now sports analyst Charles Barkley (Washington Post, May 17)
CHER
Cher
“Just got spam letter from M. Bachmann! My reply! Woman go back 2 school take history! & if I was on my deathbed & your best friend was JESUS!!! I WOULDN’T VOTE 4 YOUR GAY HATING, BULLY LOVING, POSER CHRISTIAN ASS!”
Music icon Cher, mom to transgender son Chaz Bono, on Twitter, explaining why she will not vote for U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for president. (On Top Magazine, Aug. 1)
WANDA SYKES
“Should I talk about [having breast cancer]? Because how many things could I have? You know black, lesbian — I’m like, I can’t be the poster child for everything. At least with the LGBT issues we get a parade and a float and it’s a party.”
Wanda Sykes
Comedian and actress Wanda Sykes, discussing her battle with breast cancer for the first time in an interview with out talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. (“The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” Sept. 26)
SEAN MAHER
“I’ve just never talked about it. But it’s so liberating. It was interesting to be coming to have a conversation that I was always afraid to have. This is my coming out ball. I’ve been dying to do this.”
Sean Maher
Actor Sean Maher, star of the short-lived NBC series “Playboy Club,” where he played a closted gay man married to a lesbian Bunny, coming out in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. (EW.com, Sept. 26)
KD LANG
“Justin Bieber looks just like a lesbian, so I’m gonna say hot as shit.”
Lesbian singer k.d. lang, asked on an Australian talk show to answer the random question, “Justin Bieber: hot or not?” (SheWired.com, Nov. 7)
“I’ve never been turned down for a role because I’m gay. I’m a character actor, and that’s probably why. I don’t find Hollywood, in my own experience, to be homophobic. … But I do think the straight folks will continue to play the straight roles.”
Actress Jane Lynch, who plays cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester on “Glee,” explaining that studios still want straight actors in straight romantic leads. (AfterElton.com, Jan. 12)
“I have lived my life very openly and have never hidden the fact that I am gay. Apparently the prerequisite to being a gay public figure is to appear on the cover of a magazine with the caption ‘I am gay.’ I apologize for not doing so if this is what was expected.”
Jonathan Knight
Jonathan Knight of the now-reunited boy band New Kids on the Block, responding to questions after ‘80s pop star Tiffany, whom he once dated, discussed his sexual orientation in a recent television interview. (MSNBC.com, Jan. 31)
“He became gay later. I didn’t do it. I had issues with that. I was thinking maybe I did. Now looking back when we were dating, he was so much fun. We used to do facials together. He was so easy to talk to.”
‘80s pop singer Tiffany, discussing former boyfriend Jonathan Knight from boy band New Kids on the Block, on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live.” (MSNBC.com, Jan. 31)
“You know just because you don’t like the way it sounds when I say it or you don’t like my haircut or you don’t like that I’m gay, it does not mean that what we say is not true. If you squint a little bit, it is true I do sometimes look like a dude, and I am definitely gay.”
Rachel Maddow, host of “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC, denying claims that she erred in reporting on the Wisconsin labor union controversy. (On Top Magazine, Feb. 27)
“My family knew I was gay when I was 15, long before I got famous. But it’s a very different thing coming out to your family and coming out to the universe. That’s a big step. Maybe without me, there wouldn’t be Adam Lambert. Without Bowie, there wouldn’t be me. Without Quentin Crisp, there wouldn’t have been Bowie. So everything is part of a big daisy chain.”
Boy George
Culture Club singer Boy George, known for his androgynous style in the ‘80s band, in an interview promoting the band’s reunion (Hollywood Reporter, Feb. 23)
“Why shouldn’t gay people be allowed to be able to marry? Those against gay marriages say marriage should only be between a man and a woman. God, I of all people know that doesn’t always work!”
Actress Elizabeth Taylor in a speech accepting the 2000 Vanguard Award from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Taylor, who was married eight times, was an early HIV advocate. She died March 23 at age 79. (E! Online, March 25)
“Well, obviously, I’m not allowed to speak about the legal battles, but I love lesbians.”
Jennifer Nettles of Atlanta superstar country group Sugarland, responding to this question: “Let’s talk about the legal battles that you had with ex-member Kristen Hall [who is gay], who sued you last year for profits she said she was owed. Did it leave a bad taste in your mouth for lesbians?” (South Florida Gay News, April 11)
“I guess you could say that I’m coming out tonight!”
Country music icon Dolly Parton, who has at times been rumored to be gay despite her marriage to a man, presenting the GLAAD Award to NBC’s Robert Greenblatt, with whom she worked on “9 to 5.” (GLAAD.org, April 11)
“I’m very gay, but I love women. I’m not attracted to men in any way. … But yes I am gay, I’m so happy. I’m a gay, heterosexual male. … I got major love for the gay and lesbian community, and I just want to push less separation.”
Rapper Lil B on why he is titling his next album “I’m Gay,” despite negative reaction and even threats from fans. (MTV News, April 21)
“We all agree that marriage is a fundamental right. And in our country, and in our society, there are no second-class citizens.”
Dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones in a video for the Human Rights Campaign’s New Yorkers for Marriage Equality effort. (On Top Magazine, April 26)
“So when I was about 13 or 14, I realized I was attracted to women and then made the assumption that I was a lesbian, and didn’t realize that that wasn’t the case. It was the fact that I was a man and a heterosexual man. The issue wasn’t my sexual orientation, but rather my gender identity.”
Chaz Bono
Chaz Bono, the child of entertainers Cher and Sonny Bono, on coming out first as a lesbian and then as a transgender man. His book about the experience, “Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man,” was released May 10. (Time, May 9)
“I was like, ‘Oh, my God, girls are so pretty and soft. No stubble burn! What am I doing with guys?’ I haven’t dipped back since, but I was very appreciative of the experience.”
Actress Rashida Jones on kissing Zooey Deschanel in the upcoming film “Our Idiot Brother,” which she says was her first lesbian kiss both on screen and off. (The Advocate, June-July 2011)
“I mean, really: He called me 33 percent lesbian, which was a gross underestimation of my lesbian-ness.”
Actress Reese Witherspoon, responding to ‘Twilight’ actor Robert Pattinson’s comments as she received the Generation Award at the 2011 MTV Movie Awards. Witherspoon rated herself as “at least” 55 percent. (MTV News, June 6)
“The truth is if I had a gay son, I would love him just as much as if he was straight. I might have to try to love even more because I know of the difficulty that he would have in society.”
Tracy Morgan
Comedian Tracy Morgan in one of his many apologies since going on an anti-gay tirade at a June 3 show in Nashville including saying he would stab his son if he were gay. (ABC News, June 21)
“NEW YORK! I [love] U! You’re OFFICIALLY the coolest place on the planet!”
Pop star Katy Perry, via Twitter, reacting to the New York Senate vote to legalize same-sex marriage. (MTV News, June 25)
“Being gay is fabulous…I have six new Facebook fan pages. And for every sponsor that falls out, I’ve gotten two more.”
Fictional news anchor Shannon Love, a character played by Queen Latifah on the July 11 episode of the VH1 show “Single Ladies,” discussing the impact of coming out in the media. Queen Latifah, who is also executive producer of the show, which is set in Atlanta, has long been the subject of speculation about her own sexual orientation. (BET.com, July 13)
“The Republican Party would be well advised to get the heck out of people’s bedrooms.”
Former GOP presidential candidate and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, discussing gay marriage on CNN. Giuliani said he believes New York legalizing gay marriage is wrong, but “the reality is that this is something that New York decided by a democratic vote.” (New York Post, July 18)
“Why must she dress that way? I think she’s confused about her gender.”
Tim Gunn (Blade file photo)
Gay “Project Runway” host Tim Gunn, describing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s penchant for pant suits, in an interview on “Lopez Tonight.” (Huffington Post, July 27)
“If your Bible tells you that gay people ought not be married in your church, don’t tell them they can’t be married at city hall. Marriage is a civil rite as well a civil right, and we can’t let religious bigotry close the door to justice to anyone.”
Civil rights icon Julian Bond, speaking at the first ever NAACP town hall meeting on LGBT issues, held late last month in Los Angeles. (Florida Independent, Aug. 1)
“Most gay people are very tasty people — they like beautiful stuff in their lives. If they like me, it means they have taste. They don’t follow me for my butt shots.”
Actor Jean-Claude Van Damme in a recent interview with Sabotage Times (Towleroad.com, Aug. 14)
“I’m attracted to girls and that’s what’s going to make me happy. … I’ve actually had two boyfriends but I know at the end of the day who I want to come home to and it’s going to be a girl. That’s what I like.”
“So You Think You Can Dance” runner-up Sasha Mallory, in a recent interview about the Fox reality show, where she said she is “not afraid to tell people I’m gay,” but viewers “didn’t really need to know if I was gay or straight.” (AfterEllen.com, Aug. 25)
“You’ve got audiences cheering at the prospect of somebody dying because they don’t have health care and booing a service member in Iraq because they’re gay. That’s not reflective of who we are.“
President Barack Obama, criticizing recent GOP presidential debates, speaking at a Sept. 25 campaign fundraiser. (Americablog.com, Sept. 26)
Betty White
“Throughout my career, I’ve always portrayed characters that were humorous, but also weren’t afraid to speak their minds, especially when it came to racy or controversial topics. I think this struck a chord with the LGBT community. We both also share a very strong love for animals. When you combine the two, it’s a very strong match.”
Actress Betty White, asked in a recent interview why “the LGBT community embraces and loves you so much.” (Frontiers LA, Sept. 23)
“By the power invested in me by the state of New York and the Universal Life Church, I now pronounce you husband and husband. You can kiss the groom.”
Talk show host Conan O’Brien after officiating the televised Nov. 3 wedding of Scott Cronick, O’Brien’s costume designer, and David Gorshein. (LA Times, Nov. 4)
“Gay and lesbian couples believe in commitment, family and love. If you don’t believe me, did you happen to notice that all that is being asked for is the right to be married, which ironically promotes commitment, family and love?”
Actress Mo’Nique in a video released late last month for the Human Rights Campaign’s Americans for Marriage Equality campaign (HRC, Oct. 26)
“I consider myself a lower-case gay, not screaming like my good friend [porn director and drag queen] Chi Chi LaRue. I love all my friends in the community, and if the moment came [for induction into the Hall Of Fame], it would be a tremendous moment, not just for the band and our fans, but for the whole LGBT community.”
Rob Halford, vocalist of heavy metal band Judas Priest, when asked whether his being gay may be why the band hasn’t been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (Xtra!, Nov. 21)
“I’m for gay marriage. I don’t want to do it, but I certainly think people should be allowed to, and I wouldn’t vote for anybody that would be against it. But at the same time, why do we have to be good now? Why can’t we be villains in movies?”
Gay cult film director John Waters (“Hairspray, “Cry-Baby”) on the mainstreaming of gay culture. (Slate.com, Nov. 20)
“This means more to me than any Grammy I could ever win … It will take a village and an army, [some] countries and continents to make bullying a hate crime.”
Lady Gaga, accepting the Hero Award from the Trevor Project, which fights suicide among LGBT youth. It was presented by the family of Jamey Rodemeyer, a teen fan who killed himself earlier this year. (Eonline.com, Dec. 5)
“I basically took something that was extremely erotic and very intentional, and I reduced it to a simple kiss. I got a lot of criticism for that.”
Director Stephen Spielberg on his treatment of “the more sexually honest encounters between Shug and Celie” in his 1985 film adaption of “The Color Purple,” the novel by Alice Walker that included an explicitly sexual relationship between the two women. (Entertainment Weekly, Dec. 5)
Theater
Immersive ‘Nation-State’ imagines a society free of authoritarianism
Queer duo brings unique theater experience to Dupont Underground
‘Nation-State: A Live Experiment’
Sept. 2-13
La Pluma Theatre
Dupont Underground
19 Dupont Circle, N.W.
$25-40
Dupontunderground.org
Industry Night: September 7. Free for all theater makers
A relevant piece replete with borders and passports, La Pluma Theatre’s “Nation-State: A Live Experiment”is immersive, site-specific, and testimonial.
With the production, the company’s queer co-founders Victor Salinas and Gabriel de la Cruz pose unique situations and experiences. In lieu of tickets, audience members get passports. What follows are questions and tests, and whether they gain entrance into a nation built to protect its citizens from authoritarianism, resource theft, and colonization remains to be seen.
Originally from Mexico and Peru, respectively, Salinas and de la Cruz met at a birthday party in D.C. and instantly clicked as theater makers, sharing outlook and ambition. Reluctant to go it alone, both had been searching for artistic and producing collaboration. That all changed.
And while their enterprise is primarily Latino and queer, these professional partners refused to be confined to a box, choosing rather to amplify the voices of all of D.C.’s diverse communities. In line with their plans, “Nation-State” is open to serving many points of view.
As director of “Nation-State,” de la Cruz mostly guides the questioning. He’s the right man for the job. Since arriving in the U.S. six years ago, he has been consistently curious about certain things. Who belongs here? How do you make this your home? And who is creating the rules?
“But the writing process is shared,” de la Cruz corrects. “I come up with questions. I provide Victor the topic and he goes from there. We’re both writing what happens next.”
He adds, “the most exciting moment for people is when they share something unique. As a questioner, you need to find the confidence and the right moment to ask the question. If you provide the space for that, the actor or audience member will give you something singular.”
Since before La Pluma opened in November 2025, its creators have agreed that “the most beautiful thing is when you use theater to fashion something innovative. Theater is the place where you can create new frameworks and rehearse new ways to live.”
At just an hour, “Nation-State” is performed in English at Dupont Underground – the company’s historic residence, a once subterranean street car barn located beneath Dupont Circle. For the production, the tunnels serve as boundaries, and its different curved spaces make up a micro nation and welcome different guest actors who will come to share their stories.
At certain times, Salinas plays Officer Salinas, Director of N.I.C.E. (Non-Discriminatory, Inclusive Customs Enforcement), a humorous social critic of the system and border patrol. Other times, it’s Salinas as himself telling his real-life stories. He says, “it’s a level of vulnerability that I’ve never experienced. The script is my personal life with zero censorship. But I think, if not now in a play that we are pouring our souls into, then when?
“As a kid I dreamed of being TV show host and now I am. I will sing and tell my stories. I feel comfortable and ready to do it.”
In Spanish, “pluma” means both pen and feather. For the company, it’s the latter, and comes with lively associations. Salinas explains. In mysticism, feathers serve as a portal between the real and spiritual worlds, like that between fact and fiction. And in Spanish and Latin American slang “showing feathers” (in other words, showing queerness). La Pluma encourages a good display of authenticity.
And specifically for Salinas, there’s a personal story involving his beloved grandmother with whom he was extremely close. After she died, he has regularly found feathers as if she’s making contact. “A bit romantic, I know. But I think if you’re open you can see these things,” he says.
“Nation-State” is challenging but fun. It’s unmistakably La Pluma. In the end, the company wants to build a world where everyone feels safe to tell their own stories, as individuals and performers.
Books
New book examines Trump cuts to LGBTQ healthcare
‘Aftershocks’ details impact of policy shifts on HIV response, broader public health
As LGBTQ and HIV advocates continue to grapple with the Trump administration’s attacks on healthcare, a new book offers a timely look at what happens when public health systems — and the democratic institutions that sustain them — are pushed to their limits.
The book, “Aftershocks: Trump 2.0, Public Health, and Our Better Angels,” was written by Dr. José M. Zuniga, president/CEO of Fast-Track Health. Zuniga is a globally recognized public health leader with more than three decades of experience advancing responses to HIV, communicable and non-communicable diseases, and the health impacts of climate change. He is also editor-in-chief of the Journal of Fast-Track Health.
The book covers the first year of the second Trump administration. It chronicles the impact of federal policy shifts and budget cuts on the HIV response and public health more broadly, including for LGBTQ communities. Drawing from policy analysis, frontline insight, and lived experience, the author reveal how decades of hard-won progress became vulnerable through Project 2025 and DOGE, but also a paralysis in the HIV and public health communities following the outcome of the 2024 elections.
“In other words, we were caught flat-footed when our opposition had a detailed plan to create chaos and disruption,” Zuniga says. “Thus, the book also offers Horizons 2028 as an antidote to Project 2025 as a starting point for a wide-ranging conversation about how we will build back better given the baseline pre-Trump 2.0 was already imperfect.”
Below is an excerpt from the book.
What Could Not Be Left Unsaid
Let me begin with a simple truth: I did not set out to write this book. Like many in the public health community, I set out daily to do the work of scaling prevention, expanding access to care, strengthening health systems, and ensuring that dignity, equity, and justice are operational realities. Writing, for me, has always been in service of action: policy briefs to shape decisions, editorials to provoke accountability, reports to document progress or failure, and books to synthesize experience into insight that can guide public health action. But Aftershocks is something different; it is not merely an analysis. Instead, it is a record of rupture, of response, and of what it means to continue when the ground beneath your work begins to shift.
This book was written because something changed, and that change came into sharp relief during the beginning days of the second Trump administration, including the erosion of norms, the weaponization of rhetoric, and the recalibration of governance itself. The change was not limited to policy reversals or budget cuts, though there were many. Moreover, it was not confined to rhetoric, though language played a central role. The change was structural and moral: a redefinition of how power understood its obligations to people, to evidence, and to truth itself. And for those of us working in public health, the effects were immediate and personal. We experienced a purposeful disruption of the public health ecosystem and a direct repudiation of the “health for all” principle that guides our work….
Writing this book was, unexpectedly, an act of catharsis. Not because it resolved anything, but because it created space to process what would otherwise have been overwhelming… Amid what many in the public health community experienced as both individual and collective trauma, documenting itself was stabilizing, allowing reflection without detachment and critique without disengagement. But catharsis alone is insufficient. This book is not an exercise in lament; it is also a response. If the period it chronicles is defined by disruption, then its purpose is to offer direction. Where Project 2025 represented a blueprint for ideological capture of institutions, language, and governance, this book offers a counterpoint: Horizons 2028…
Horizons 2028 is grounded in a simple premise: that the future of public health – and of democratic governance more broadly – depends on rebuilding systems that are resilient to political volatility. That means strengthening not only federal capacity, but subnational leadership. It means embedding community-led accountability into data systems. It means aligning health outcomes with social determinants and recognizing that equity is not an endpoint but a continuous process of adjustment and correction. It means treating global engagement not as optional, but as essential to national well-being. In other words, it is a roadmap not for returning to what was, but for building what is required…
I write as an Independent. Not in the sense of detachment, but in the sense of accountability to evidence, to outcomes, and to the people whose lives depend on both… Independence does not mean neutrality in the face of harm; it means refusing to filter reality through partisan allegiance. Importantly, it also means being guided by a consistent commitment to equity, dignity, and justice. These are not abstract values… They are tested in moments of crisis, when the gap between principle and practice becomes most apparent. They demand accountability not only for what is said, but for what is done – and for what is allowed to persist unchallenged. And they require the courage to name harm clearly, even when doing so is inconvenient or politically unwelcome.
That commitment shapes the analysis that follows, but it is also what makes the writing difficult. Because to document harm is to confront it. To trace its origins is to name decisions and their consequences. And to do so honestly is to risk being read as partisan in a landscape where truth itself has become politicized. But the alternative – silence, or false equivalence – is not acceptable. Not when the stakes are as high as they are. There is, however, a thread that runs through this book that resists cynicism, is not optimism, at least not in the conventional sense, but is something quieter and more durable: a belief that even in moments of rupture, there remains a capacity – within institutions, within communities, within individuals – to reorient toward something better.
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Out & About
Archuleta to host book signing in Rehoboth Beach
Entertainer to meet with fans at Browseabout Books
David Archuleta will chat with fans and sign his book “Devout: Losing My Faith to Find Myself” on Sunday, Sept. 6 at 2 p.m. at Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach.
The book is an inspirational account of his transformation from a closeted Mormon teen singer to a pop star who is comfortable with his queer identity. For additional information on this event, go to browseaboutbooks.com.
Archuleta will also be in Rehoboth Beach to headline the “Night of Entertainment” on Saturday, Sept. 5 for CAMP Rehoboth’s SUNFESTIVAL weekend, which includes the Night of Dance Sept. 6.
Visit camprehoboth.org for more information.
We’re getting married but our parents object
Michael Smith could make history as Delaware’s first LGBTQ treasurer
Poland begins to legally recognize same-sex marriages from other countries
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New book examines Trump cuts to LGBTQ healthcare
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