“We’re not exactly sure how Wal-Mart fits into the LGBT-friendly business category. In fact, we’re not sure how Wal-Mart fits into anything worker friendly.”
Jeremy Bishop, program director for Pride at Work, criticizing the new partnership between Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce
“My part in all of this is to make sure LGBT businesses have a chance to become part of the largest supply chain in the world. And this partnership is part of that process.”
Justin Nelson, co-founder and president of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, on why his organization’s partnership with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is important
“For gay couples, death and taxes were not only certain, but also times
of great and unequal financial difficulty.”
Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, on the significance of the federal Pension Protection Act signed into law by President Bush on Aug. 17
“It has not really been an issue in Texas in recent years. But there are some parties in the South that have not gone as far as we would have liked.”
Buck Massey, member of the Texas Democratic Party Executive Committee, on the impact of new delegate selection rules recently approved by the Democratic National Committee
“The simple question before voters this fall is whether we will provide basic legal rights for such things as hospital visitation, end-of-life decisions, inheritance of property.”
Sean Duffy, executive director of Coloradans for Fairness, on Referendum I, which would put domestic partnerships into state law in Colorado
“You didn’t really know who was gay, because no one was really open about it. The mentality was, “‘I’m gay, but I have to marry a woman,’ and that,
to me, wasn’t right.”
RafiQ Salleh, gay man who immigrated to the U.S. from Singapore, on being gay in his homeland
“We are going to … let them know there is some hope, that they can live openly and proudly.”
Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out, on his organization’s plans to demonstrate outside an ex-gay seminar byLiving Hope in Carrollton this weekend.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition, August 25, 2006.