—Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick on the state’s legalization of same-sex marriage, as he marched in Boston’s June 10 gay pride parade, to the AP.

"Wonderful. I’m delighted that you have a family and you’re happy with your family. That’s the American way. ...People can live their lives as they choose and children can be a great source of joy, as you know. And I welcome that. [But] marriage is an institution which is designed to bring a man and woman together to raise a child and...the ideal setting for society at large is where there is a male and a female associated with the development and nurturing of a child. ...There are other ways to raise kids that’s fine: single moms, grandparents raising kids, gay couples raising kids. That’s the American way, to have people have their freedom of choice."

—Presidential candidate Mitt Romney when, at a June 6 event in New Hampshire, lesbian mom Cynthia Fish accused him of invalidating gay families.

"I need a conservative candidate all the way who would say to a gay woman: ‘You know what? I’m very sorry for your children. I think it’s child abuse for you to raise children. And I don’t mean to insult you personally, but this is a large cultural issue. The society is collapsing. Marriage is a fragile institution and I think you’re making a mockery of it in this manner by doing this.’ That would have been the proper answer."

—Radio personality Michael Savage on the June 7 edition of his syndicated show in response to Romney’s remarks, according to Media Matters for America "The Savage Nation" is America’s third-most-listened-to radio show.

"We’ve made progress from utter invisibility 30 years ago to prominence in the cultural scene, but with that prominence has come a more rampant form of homophobia. My hope is that we’re close to the time that homophobia takes on the status of racism today—normal, mainstream people don’t accept it."

—Author Armistead Maupin to the Associated Press, June 11. Maupin’s new book, Michael Tolliver Lives, is a sort-of sequel to the Tales of the City series.

"[I]t was only recently that he became too well known to have a profile posted on a gay cruising site. (The administrators took it down, thinking it was fake.)"

—From a New York Times profile of singer Rufus Wainwright, June 4.

"Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, the screenwriting team that created [the HBO series] Big Love, don’t have a personal interest in Mormonism or polygamy, but they do know something about family lifestyles outside the American mainstream. That’s because, offscreen, they’re a gay couple celebrating the 16th year of their own monogamous relationship."

—The lead on a profile in the San Francisco Chronicle, June 10.

"Fundamentalists say they are all for taking Bible stories literally. Well, there is a long history of polygamy in the Jewish tradition and Bible tradition. Why do those people get to pick and choose which Bible readings they condone and which they don’t?"

—Will Scheffer, openly gay co-creator of the HBO series Big Love, to the San Francisco Chronicle, June 10. Scheffer and co-creator Mark V. Olsen have been in a monogamous relationship for 16 years.

"If you were gay or with gay people then perhaps you saw what we were doing as representative of being gay. If in any way we made people more comfortable around people who were homosexual, we did a service and in a small way pushed forward a little more tolerance in the wider community."

—Village People cowboy Randy Jones to the Sydney Star Observer, May 31.