Jun 10, 2005   | COMMENTS     

“Texans have made a decision about marriage and if there is some other state that has a more lenient view than Texas then maybe that’s a better place for them to live.”
Texas Gov. trong>Rick Perry, as he was about to sign a bill to place a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage before the voters (Associated Press, June 6)

“We don’t have the same theology as Pat Robertson. Hurricanes are not a divine punishment.”
Roman Catholic Bishop trong>Thomas Wenski, contrasting his mass last weekend asking God’s protection during Florida’s upcoming hurricanes season, from the televangelist’s 1998 claim that Orlando risked God’s retribution for allowing gay pride flags on municipal poles to mark the annual Gay Days celebration (Orlando Sentinel, June 2)

“The various forms of the dissolution of matrimony today, like free unions, trial marriages and going up to pseudo-matrimonies by people of the same sex, are rather expressions of an anarchic freedom that wrongly passes for true freedom of man.”
Newly elected trong>Pope Benedict XVI (Associated Press, June 6)

“I do not find it surprising that Massachusetts continues to have one of the lowest divorce rates in the country while Texas has one of the highest. Vermont has had five years of civil unions, and still the sun comes up every morning and Vermont families stay intact. Isn’t it clear that we are growing and strengthening families by including everyone?”
Tipper Gore, wife of the former vice president, speaking at a Human Rights Campaign fund-raiser near Salt Lake City (Associated Press, June 6)

“Public opinion [in the Netherlands] has become very superficial and unreliable since the rise and death of Pim Fortuyn. All of a sudden masses of people supported an extravagant, militant homosexual with a deviating opinion and chauffeur-driven Bentley.”
Belgian Foreign Minister trong>Karel de Gucht on the 2002 assassination of Pim Fortuyn, a gay, populist anti-immigration, Dutch politician; he was angry over the Netherlands voters rejecting the European Constitution (Associated Press, June 5)

“Elton sees a little bit of himself in Billy.”
Dara O’Briain, guest host of the BBC game show “Have I Got News For You?”, joking about openly gay singer Elton John’s interest in the musical “Billy Elliot,” based on the movie about the 11-year-old ballet dancer; the remark drew angry criticism from the gay rights group Outrage (BBC News, May 18)

“Indeed, gay obituaries suggest that engaging in homosexuality costs participants between 15 to 25 years of life, suggesting that homosexuality is more dangerous than smoking or being fat.”
Dr. Paul Cameron, Family Research Institute president, who drew data from more than 10,000 obituaries from the Washington Blade, and concluded they proved the average age of death for gay men was 42 in 1994