THETALK > > W H AT T H E Y ’ R E S AY I N G < <
THE POWER
BARACK OBAMA
MY FAMILY
“You have the power to make things better … You’ve communicated a sense of urgency that is as powerful and as transformative as anything that I’ve seen in recent years.”
“I don’t really have a family, so my friends become my family,” Anderson explained. “And this is somebody that I was involved with for 10 years. He’s a great guy.” —New dad Anderson Cooper explaining why he will co-parent his son, Wyatt, with his expartner, Benjamin Maisani, in an interview with Howard Stern.
—President Barack Obama at a virtual town hall last month, on George Floyd’s death and the following protests. ANDERSON COOPER
MY HEART
WHO SHE IS
“Today I joined the hundreds of thousands of families who have lost loved ones to opioid addiction. My son Beckett, who was just 21, struggled MELISSA to overcome his ETHERIDGE addiction and finally succumbed to it today. My heart is broken.”
—Singer Melissa Etheridge announcing on Twitter last month that her and filmmaker Julie Cypher’s 21-year-old son Beckett Cypher, died after losing his battle with opioid addiction. RIP.
BEING ERASED
“The history of the LGBTQ community is a history of fighting against invisibility. Without data, we quickly become an invisible community and risk being erased.”
SCOTT WIENER
8 T H E F I GH T | www.thefightmag.com
—Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, introducing a bill last month requiring the state to collect data on how the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic affects the LGBTQ community.
“It was a process for us to sit down with our daughter and find out who she is and what she likes, and not put something on her—because as parents, we put our hopes and our fears on our kids.” —Retired NBA player Dwyane Wade about raising their 12-year-old transgender daughter Zaya, in an interview with Ellen, last month. GEORGE TAKEI. PHOTO BY GAGE SKIDMORE
DWYANE WADE. PHOTO BY KEITH ALLISON
THESE IDIOTS
“I’m starting a rumor on the Breitbart chats that Covid-19 turns you gay… That should keep a lot of these idiots at home.” —Actor George Takei on getting Trump supporters to following common-sense guidelines for slowing the spread of coronavirus during the global pandemic, on Twitter last month.
ALWAYS THERE
“It’s kind of a reminder that these things are always there festering, and our first step in dealing with it is acknowledging that it’s an actual thing.”
—Out actor BD Wong on the rising racial prejudice taking place during the global pandemic, in an interview with the Advocate last month.
BD WONG
