I was asked last November to judge Mr Gay UK. I said it would be my pleasure: he’s against Nature and against God and he’s going to Hell. Jimmy Carr, on stage
Most Americans are repelled by the mere notion of homosexuality. CBS’ survey shows that two out of three Americans look upon homosexuals with disgust, discomfort or fear. The Homosexuals: CBS Reports 1967
I can’t believe Liberace was gay. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery 1997 starring Mike Myers & Elizabeth Hurley & Robert Wagner & Seth Green & Mindy Sterling & Michael York & Fabiana Udenio & Will Ferrell & Mimi Rogers & Joe Son & Paul Dillon et al, director Jay Roach, Austin missing last thirty years in stasis
Who dear? Me dear? Advice dear? Yes, dear ... What do you mean in my experience? I beg pardon. How very dare you ... Well I find you impertinent. The Catherine Tate Show
Derek Faye to Doctor: I beg pardon? Yes I heard that bit. I beg your pardon? How very dare you. I’ve never been so insulted. What on Earth are you insinuating? Gay, dear? Who, dear? Me, dear? No, dear. Just because I live with my mother and haven’t found the right girl yet you assume I take it up the ’arris. How very dare you. Well yes I think you should. Twenty-five years I’ve been coming here and then you suddenly come out with this. Well I find you impertinent. Gay men’s health clinic – how very dare you! The Catherine Tate Show s2e1
I beg pardon? What on Earth are you insinuating? How very dare you. What has the world come to when two men can’t enjoy a simple holiday together without being accused of sexual perversion? My mother and I have been coming to this travel agent for twenty-five years. And in all that time I have never been accused of taking deliveries up the back passage. Who, dear? You, dear. Misjudged it? Yes, dear. The Catherine Tate Show s2e4
I like your trainers, sir. Where d’you get it? [New York] Issit. Have you got a lot of shoes sir? Are you gay, sir? Are you gay, sir? Are you gay though, sir? Are you homophobic, sir? ... Are you Graham Norton’s bitch, sir? ... Are you in the closet, sir? ... Is your wife a lesbian, sir? ... Are you homophobic, sir? ... Am I boverred? The Catherine Tate Show s2e6
How very dare you. I’ve never been so insulted. Well what exactly is it you are insinuating? And how do you know I’m not married with a wife and kids? Who, dear? Me, dear? No, dear. No, dear ... I find you impertinent ... Gay pride? How very dare you. The Catherine Tate Show Christmas Show with Una Stubbs
Derek Faye to Bonnie Langford: What on Earth are you insinuating? Gay fans? Me and Leonard? How very dare you. Oh just sign the book, Ginger. Gay, dear? Who, dear? Me, dear? No, dear. Just because a man is partial to an evening’s musical theatre and doesn’t shy away from a chest wax you assume he likes his shopping dropped off round the back. The Catherine Tate Show s3e3
Derek Fate to Patsy Palmer: What on Earth are you insinuating? Gay wedding? How very dare you. I’ve never heard the likes. Gay, dear? Who, dear? Me, dear? No, dear? Just because a man minds his Ps and Qs, and is not all at sea with a mascara wand, you assume he travels up the chocolate escalator. The Catherine Tate Show s3e4
How very dare you! Who, dear? Me, dear? Gay, dear? No, dear. Just because a man knows the entire dance routine to Making Your Mind Up, skirt rip n all, you accuse him of bowling from the pavilion end. The Catherine Tate Show s3e5
Did you hear about our John, Keiran? He’s a gay man now. The Catherine Tate Show, Northern Irish woman
Tchaikovsky thought of committing suicide for fear of being discovered as a homosexual, but today, if you are a composer and not homosexual, you might as well put a bullet through your head. Sergei Diaghilev
I am the love that dare not speak its name. Lord Alfred Douglas, 1870-1945
The reason no one has yet been able to come up with a good word to describe the homosexualist (sometimes known as gay, fag, queer, etc.) is because he does not exist. The human race is divided into male and female. Many human beings enjoy the sexual relations with their own sex, many don’t; many respond to both. The plurality is the fact of our nature and not worth fretting about. Gore Vidal
We’re trained to see only male or female and to plot people into those categories when they actually don’t fit neatly at all. But if we pause, watch and listen closely we’ll see the multiplicity of ways in which people are sexed and gendered. There exists a range of personal identifications around woman, man, in-between – we don’t even have names or pronouns that reflect that in-between place, but people certainly live in it. Minnie Bruce Pratt
Gay and lesbian people are three to seven times more likely to attempt suicide. For the Bible Tells Me So, 2007
‘I shared with her the serious relationships that I’d had, had been with men and that I’d been in therapy for a year twice a week to cure myself, and I remember saying to her, I’m scared to death that this homosexual thing could rear its ugly head.’ ibid. Gene Robinson
Sixteen are about to come up in court in Bodmin, Cornwall, charged with ‘serious crimes’ which did no harm to anyone.
There are no witnesses – only confessions given to the police that these men had sex with one another. Yes, that’s still a crime. It’s called ‘gross indecency in a public place’.
A ‘public place’ includes a car, a party or even a flat to which anyone apart from the accused has access.
The Cornish case is not an exception. All over the country, police forces, which constantly complain about overwork are straining at the leash to ‘run to ground’ anyone who can be proved to have had sex with someone of his own sex.
All this is happening ten years after the law was changed to allow homosexual relations between adults.
Nettie Pollard, Gay Rights officer of the National Council of Civil Liberties, reckons that these prosecutions have ‘doubled at least since 1967, when the law was changed’. Paul Foot & Lionel Starling, How Much Longer Must These People Be Hounded & Humiliated?
Dear Norman ... I have now got myself into the kind of trouble that I have always considered to be quite a possibility for me. Though I have usually rated it at about 10:1 against. I shall shortly be pleading guilty to a charge of sexual offences with a young man ... Yours in distress, Alan. Alan Turing, letter to Norman Routledge 1952
Homosexuals must not be handling top secret material. Senator Joe McCarthy, 1952
Jesus never said a word about homosexuality. Bill Maher, Religulous, 2008
Did you see that HBO Special on Ted Haggard? … He said he was impacted by homosexuality. Bill Maher: But I’m Not Wrong, Sky Comedy 2021
This utter absolute asinine idiotic stupidity of men marrying men. Reverend Jimmy Swaggart
The Boy Scouts of America discriminates against gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, atheist and women. Eagle Scout, Scouting For All, campaigns against blanket discrimination in Boy Scouts of America
Instead of teaching hate they should be teaching inclusiveness and acceptance – and let that spread as the wildfire. ibid.
Homosexual conduct is not compatible with the aims and purposes of scouting and that a known or avowed homosexual does not represent a desirable role model for the youth in the scouting program. Boy Scouts of America website
Gay people are different, Brandon. Under no circumstances can we put America’s homosexuals in danger. Gays in America are the only group in America left untouched by war. They’re special, pure and rare ... We must protect them ... We love them too much. Nor should their fragile psychies be subjected to the horrible sites that occur on the battlefields; their pure minds should be reserved for man on man or woman on woman romance ... God bless America and her gays. General Robert McBrayer, Pentagon, interview News ‘Gays Too Precious to Risk in Combat’
Homosexuality … I have heard some say … practices are allowed in France and in other NATO countries. We are not French, and we are not other nationals. We are British, thank God. Bernard Montgomery, speech House of Lords 24th May 1965
People have been in your passage? Jim Davidson, Hell’s Kitchen, conversation at table, 2007
Gay men have a look ... A lot of shoplifters have the same face, don’t they? ibid.
You play the old homophobic card, mate. You’re a fucking disgrace. ibid.
Right then, you are the hand-picked elite of the police force – the Poof Squad. Spitting Image s1e8, commissioner to rozzer, ITV 1984