Quote Of The Day - Diarmuid Martin

"God never created anybody that he doesn't love. Anybody who doesn't show love towards gay and lesbian people is insulting God. They are not just homophobic if they do that – they are actually Godophobic because God loves every one of those people. Certainly the sort of actions that we heard of this week of people being spat at because they were gay or ridiculed - that is not a Christian attitude. We have to have the courage to stand up and say that. We all belong to one another and there is no way we can build up a society in which people are excluded or insulted. We have to learn a new way in Ireland to live with our differences and for all of us to live with respect for one another." - Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin, speaking to the Irish Independent about the continuing "Pantigate" flap.

RELATED: Rory O'Neill, whose drag persona is Panti Bliss, wants a personal apology from Ireland's radio network.

The controversy over ‘Pantigate’ began after Mr O’Neill – aka Miss Panti Bliss - appeared on RTÉ’s ‘Saturday Night Show’ with host Brendan O’Connor. During the course of an interview with Mr O’Connor. where Mr O’Neill cited particular names – columnists John Waters, Breda O’Brien and the Iona Institute - in relation to a discussion about ‘homophobia’. Two weeks after the interview, and a week after an apology was broadcast on the show, it emerged that RTE paid financial compensation of €85,000 to Mr Waters, Ms O’Brien and members of the Iona Institute for defamation. Last week, Killane took the move to defend the compensation – and said RTE followed the best legal advice available to them. Speaking about the controversy this morning, Mr O’Neill told Today FM’s Ray D’arcy he wants a personal apology from the RTE Head of TV. “I’m not going to be sending solicitors to Glen Killane. I do not expect a public apology,” he told The Ray D’Arcy Show.

If you are among the few who have not yet viewed Panti's now-legendary speech from the stage of Ireland's National Theater, do yourself a favor.

Quote Of The Day - Morrissey

"War, I thought, was the most negative aspect of male heterosexuality. If more men were homosexual, there would be no wars, because homosexual men would never kill other men, whereas heterosexual men love killing other men. They even get medals for it. Women don’t go to war to kill other women. Wars and armies and nuclear weapons are essentially heterosexual hobbies." - Morrissey, speaking to Rookie Magazine.

Quote Of The Day: Brenden Petersen

"Regardless of the amount, whether it's $500,000 or $50 million, my vote is not going to bought either way. I'm going to do what's right. If they want to throw away $500,000, then that's their decision." - GOP Minnesota Sen. Brenden Petersen, responding to yesterday's threat by NOM's Brian Brown, who has vowed to unseat any Republican who supports marriage equality. Last year  NOM pissed away $2.2M in their failed attempt to install a constitutional ban in Minnesota.

Quote Of The Day - Sara Davis Buechner

"In the 1960s, war protesters moved to Canada to live openly. I did the same in 2003. On several fronts, Canada was far ahead of the United States. Gay marriage was legalized by Canada in 2005. And thanks to its universal medical care I was able have corrective surgery at a superb clinic in Montreal. In the United States, once I came out as Sara, I couldn’t get bookings with the top orchestras anymore, nor would any university employ me.

"In Canada, the University of British Columbia in Vancouver hired me for a piano professorship in 2003, and in 2008 I earned tenure. After moving, I was able to marry the Japanese woman who’d been my longtime partner at a wedding before 125 family and friends. [snip] In 2003 I hadn’t played as a soloist with an American orchestra in nearly five years. But when I crossed the border to Canada, I found plenty of orchestras and recital presenters who were happy to book me.

"The success of my performing career in Canada has helped me rebuild a reputation back home. I’ve played twice now with the San Francisco Symphony, and also with the orchestras of Buffalo, Dayton, Seattle and others. I am confident I will once again play with the elite groups in Cleveland, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New York, earning the same good reviews that David Buechner once did." - Transgender concert pianist Sara Davis Buechner, writing for the New York Times.

Quote Of The Day - Maureen Dowd

"Romney and Tea Party loonies dismissed half the country as chattel and moochers who did not belong in their 'traditional' America. But the more they insulted the president with birther cracks, the more they tried to force chastity belts on women, and the more they made Hispanics, blacks and gays feel like the help, the more these groups burned to prove that, knitted together, they could give the dead-enders of white male domination the boot. The election about the economy also sounded the death knell for the Republican culture wars. Romney was still running in an illusory country where husbands told wives how to vote, and the wives who worked had better get home in time to cook dinner. But in the real country, many wives were urging husbands not to vote for a Brylcreemed boss out of a ’50s boardroom whose party was helping to revive a 50-year-old debate over contraception. Just like the Bushes before him, Romney tried to portray himself as more American than his Democratic opponent. But America’s gallimaufry wasn’t knuckling under to the gentry this time." - Maureen Dowd, writing for the New York Times.

Quote Of The Day - Josh Barro

"You can mark my prediction now: A secret recording from a closed-door Mitt Romney fundraiser, released today by David Corn at Mother Jones, has killed Mitt Romney's campaign for president. On the tape, Romney explains that his electoral strategy involves writing off nearly half the country as unmoveable Obama voters. As Romney explains, 47 percent of Americans 'believe that they are victims.' He laments: 'I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.'

"So what's the upshot? 'My job is not to worry about those people,' he says. He also notes, describing President Obama's base, 'These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax.' This is an utter disaster for Romney. Romney already has trouble relating to the public and convincing people he cares about them. Now, he's been caught on video saying that nearly half the country consists of hopeless losers." - Josh Barro, writing for Bloomberg.com.

Read the full essay.

Quote Of The Day - Chris Kluwe

"I can assure you that gay people getting married will have zero effect on your life. They won't come into your house and steal your children. They won't magically turn you into a lustful cockmonster. They won't even overthrow the government in an orgy of hedonistic debauchery because all of a sudden they have the same legal rights as the other 90 percent of our population—rights like Social Security benefits, child care tax credits, Family and Medical Leave to take care of loved ones, and COBRA healthcare for spouses and children.

"You know what having these rights will make gays? Full-fledged American citizens just like everyone else, with the freedom to pursue happiness and all that entails. Do the civil-rights struggles of the past 200 years mean absolutely nothing to you? In closing, I would like to say that I hope this letter, in some small way, causes you to reflect upon the magnitude of the colossal foot in mouth clusterfuck you so brazenly unleashed on a man whose only crime was speaking out for something he believed in. Best of luck in the next election; I'm fairly certain you might need it.

"P.S. I've also been vocal as hell about the issue of gay marriage so you can take your "I know of no other NFL player who has done what Mr. Ayanbadejo is doing" and shove it in your close-minded, totally lacking in empathy piehole and choke on it. Asshole." - Minnesota Vikings kicker Chris Kluwe, in a letter to Maryland state Rep. Emmett Burns, who has called for sanctions against a Baltimore Ravens player for supporting same-sex marriage.

VIDEO: Kluwe appeared on MSNBC to back up his letter.

RELATED: A cleaned-up but equally hilarious version of Kluwe's letter was published in Minnesota's Pioneer Press.

Quote Of The Day - Jerame Davis

"Barney Frank is a distinguished and honorable public servant. He has faced nearly 40 years of unspeakable hatred and persecution for being the most prominent and outspoken openly gay elected official in the country. Regardless of what he has to say about Log Cabin Republicans, the notion that they would suggest a man as brave and upstanding as Congressman Frank is either cowardly or a bully is both deluded and absurd.

"The true bullies are the hate-mongers in the GOP who want to strip us of our rights and shove us back into the closet. And 'cowardly'? Cowardly is making pathetic excuses for the backward and misguided anti-LGBT policies of your Party. The Log Cabin Republicans are the most weak-kneed, sycophantic apologists I've ever encountered. After their dismal performance at the RNC convention driving the GOP platform even farther to the right, they should give back all the money they've fleeced from their donors and close the doors." - Jerame Davis, National Stonewall Democrats executive director, via press release.

Quote Of The Day - Richard Socarides

"Last night in Charlotte, the Democratic Party made history as the first national party to offer a platform endorsing marriage equality for all Americans. The move followed, of course, President Obama's personal endorsement of same-sex marriage in May. Both were important moments for me, here as a delegate for New York, and many others at the convention who have fought for full equality for gays and lesbians over many years. It was a completely different scene in Tampa last week.

"When Ann Romney spoke about her own 'real marriage' at the Republican National Convention, I wondered if this admittedly likable woman auditioning for a role as first lady would someday try to stand in the way of my marriage. I thought: can Mitt Romney stop gay marriage? Does he even want to? [snip]

"I asked Evan Wolfson, President of the group Freedom to Marry and the founder of the marriage equality movement nationally, whether he though Mitt Romney could stop marriage equality or if he thought Romney even cared. 'He has staked out a position, whether sincerely or otherwise, to the right of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush'” said Wolfson. 'We have no reason to think he's not serious.'

So while I welcome my pro-equality friends in the GOP to the cause—they see the future—I'm happier in Charlotte than I would have been in Tampa. And I hope that the country sticks with the president it's got." - Former Clinton White House advisor Richard Socarides, writing for the Daily Beast.

Read the full article.

Quote Of The Day - Sharon Stapel

"I’m not going to suggest all LGBT folks are non-violent because that would be silly. However, if you look at the organized movement toward LGBT equality, there are no mainstream or even left of mainstream organizations who advocate that the murder of people who are opposed to LGBT equality is a viable solution to meeting our goal.

"Yet a quick scan of the internet shows that there are calls for LGBT people to be 'penned up,' urges the abduction of the children of LGBT people, calls for the government to 'kill the gays.' Now the FRC is suggesting that the Southern Poverty Law Center’s labeling of them as a hate group encouraged this shooting. I would suggest that the culture that SPLC is creating is one aimed at denouncing hate and calling out the institutions that perpetrate that hate.

"I would further suggest that SPLC did not urge its constituency to pen anyone up, take their children or ask the government to murder them. Much of the culture that is created from the right, however, is predicated on violence being the solution to “the homosexual” problem and inciting this violence. And we see that violence being carried out every day. Shooting anyone associated with FCR is wrong. And so is creating a culture that would suggest that this violence is ever a solution to our differences." - Sharon Stapel, executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project.

Quote Of The Day - Ryan Bomberger

"I'm as black as Obama, and I'm tired of any legitimate criticism of the President's policies reduced to lazy and ludicrous charges of racism. Obama and the Democrats have been promising a whole lot of hope and change but, instead, have delivered higher unemployment, higher poverty rates and millions more welfare enrollees while aggressively promoting abortion in the black community." - Ryan Bomberger, founder of the website So Out Loud, where the below bumper stickers are about to go on sale.VIDEO: Bomberger has created the song Get Out to launch his new website. Some Christianist websites have suggested that readers request that the (regrettably catchy) tune be played by their local radio stations.

Quote Of The Day - Elton John

"Recently I read about violence against gay people in Ukraine. Beating up gay people is wrong. This for me does not symbolize Ukraine. I plead with you: Stop the violence against gay people." - Elton John, interrupting Friday's concert in Kiev to plead for tolerance. John was in Ukraine to perform as part of a concert celebrating the Euro 2012 soccer tournament hosted there.

Quote Of The Day - Debra Messing

"I'd be devastated if my son grows up to be a hetero (sexual). As a parent you just envision a certain life for your child. I mean, if he's straight, think of all the fabulous things he's going to miss out on!" - Debra Messing, joking with Will McCormack from the stage at a Trevor Project event. (Via Zack Ford)

Quote Of The Day - Father Tony Adams

"Unlike my parents, young Catholics today do not fear or revere the clergy. The worldwide priest pedophile scandal did irreparable damage to the blind respect priests once enjoyed. For young Catholics, the pope is a distant and tiny man; a relic of an age when the temporal power and splendor of the church almost suffocated religion itself. Many of these young Catholics will not be getting out of bed early on a Sunday morning to get their kids cleaned up, dressed and in the car in time for Mass, and they will not be throwing their hard- earned dollars into the collection basket. They will discourage their sons from even considering the priesthood as a vocation. Today, American bishops brazenly insert themselves into politics, preaching messages of hate and intolerance, stripping rights from women and forcing the priests below them to read letters from the pulpit ordering Catholics to behave in certain ways, such as voting against marriage equality.

"Whenever a priest refuses to read such a letter, I am filled with hope that other priests—gay or straight—will stand up with him and will together take a courageous stand against the homophobia of the hierarchy. We live in a time where the sheep must lead the lost shepherds. But my hope is that when those confused old shepherds have passed away, a new generation of Catholic priests, bishops, cardinals, and popes will include openly gay, straight, single and married men and women—people who will not be interested in sticking their noses in Catholic bedrooms but will instead be focused on amplifying the unconditional love of Jesus. I hope I live to see that day. I would not mind receiving the blessing from such a pope and being asked again to step up to that pulpit on the high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica to proclaim the truth of Jesus with the voice he gave me for exactly that purpose." - Father Tony Adams, writing for Pride Magazine.

NOTE: His essay begins on Page 74 and he does not shy away from naming some names from his days at the Vatican.

Quote Of The Day - Betty White

"Oh! I didn’t know I was a gay icon. I get a lot of mail — but I don’t get many bad letters — but I got a woman the other day that was so upset with me because they said, 'How do you feel about the gay marriage thing?' and my answer to that is, 'I really don’t care with whom you sleep, I just care what kind of a decent human being you are.' I figure all the rest of it is your business and not mine. And not hers, incidentally." - Betty White.

Quote Of The Day - Jon Cryer

"I respectfully disagree. I want to stand up for all the slightly effeminate dorks that are actually heterosexual. Just cause the gaydar is going off, doesn't mean your instruments aren't faulty. I've had to live with that, and that's okay." - Jon Cryer, responding to Pretty In Pink costar Molly Ringwald, who says that his Duckie character was gay but didn't know it. Ringwald's statement has spawned a playful Twitter exchange between Cryer, Ringwald, and fellow cast member Andrew McCarthy.

RELATED: Ringwald will be a grand marshal of this year's Los Angeles Pride.

Quote Of The Day - George Zimmerman

"I dont miss driving around scared to hit mexicans walkin on the side of the street, soft ass wanna be thugs messin with peoples cars when they aint around (what are you provin, that you can dent a car when no ones watchin) dont make you a man in my book. Workin 96 hours to get a decent pay check, gettin knifes pulled on you by every mexican you run into!" - George Zimmerman, in a posting from a just-unearthed MySpace page. In another posting Zimmerman brags about getting his charges reduced for assaulting a law enforcement officer.

Quote Of The Day II- John Shore

"What immediately became a meme amongst those criticizing Dan is that those who walked out of his talk felt bullied by him. But that’s impossible. People get bullied because of who they are: how they look and act, what they say and do. Perceived as being in some critical way weak or lacking, victims of bullies are selected for persecution; they are pulled from the pack before being pointedly and repeatedly victimized. The people who walked out during Dan’s talk were not separated from their peers by anyone. They were content to do that themselves. They were not frightened or cowed. They were offended. They felt that by disparaging what amounts to their God, Dan had transgressed beyond their capacity for toleration. And they were pleased to show their intolerance of Dan’s words by protesting against them in the manner they did. Theirs was not an act born of suffering. It was a proud show of disdain." - Christian author John Shore.

Quote Of The Day - Ann Romney

"It was my early birthday present for someone to be critical of me as a mother. That was a really defining moment, and I loved it." - GOP employment and economy adviser Ann Romney, speaking from the construction site of her 11,000 square foot oceanside mansion.

Quote Of The Day - Linda Hirshman

"Beltway pundit Hilary Rosen committed a mortal sin of American politics: She spoke the truth with a microphone on. [snip] At a recent event, Romney said he wished his wife were there to help answer a question about female voters. 'She says that she’s going across the country and talking with women, and what they’re talking about is the debt that we’re leaving the next generation and the failure of this economy to put people back to work.'

"When Ann Romney’s husband, who faces a gender gap in some polls, uses her experience and insight as a megaphone for women’s concern over fewer paid jobs, he mistakenly assumes that all women are fungible. Which was, I take it, Rosen’s original point. Although Ann Romney may be a fine spokesperson on some issues, the dirty little secret of angling for female votes is that while all women’s work, inside or outside the home, has the same worth, as Michelle Obama and Barbara Bush sweetly expressed, all women do not have the same interests. Women who work in the home do not have the same interest in the recovery of the formal job market as women who have to work for pay." - Feminist author Linda Hirshman, writing for the Washington Post.