“You know just because you don’t like the way it sounds when I say it or you don’t like my haircut or you don’t like that I’m gay, it does not mean that what we say is not true. If you squint a little bit, it is true I do sometimes look like a dude, and I am definitely gay.”

— Rachel Maddow, host of “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC, denying claims that she erred in reporting on the Wisconsin labor union controversy. (On Top Magazine, Feb. 27)

“Obviously, there are social-political connotations of playing a gay character, especially as a straight actor, but I really find it no different than … Max Adler, who plays a homophobic football-playing bully, which couldn’t be farther from who he is, and Heather Morris, who plays, you know, like a dumb cheerleader, also a character."

— “Glee” actor Darren Criss (pictured) on playing gay student Blaine Anderson, who Criss says is ready to kiss gay student Kurt Hummel, played by Chris Colfer. (Access Hollywood via On Top Magazine, Feb. 28)

“Homosexuals have effectively co-opted blackness…to where now, we actually believe gay is the new black and we actually believe homosexual marriage is a civil rights issue. I’m insulted that people equate not just a sinful behavior but a behavior that’s a special category of sin called abomination with the level of melanin in my skin.

—Pastor Voddie Baucham of Grace Family Baptist Church in Spring, Texas, in a Feb. 26 speech to the 2011 National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville, Tenn. (Christian Post, Feb. 27)

“My family knew I was gay when I was 15, long before I got famous. But it’s a very different thing coming out to your family and coming out to the universe. That’s a big step. Maybe without me, there wouldn’t be Adam Lambert. Without Bowie, there wouldn’t be me. Without Quentin Crisp, there wouldn’t have been Bowie. So everything is part of a big daisy chain.”

— Culture Club singer Boy George, known for his androgynous style in the ‘80s band, in an interview promoting the band’s reunion (Hollywood Reporter, Feb. 23)

Top photo: Actor Darren Criss says his character "Blaine" is ready to kiss Chris Colfer's "Kurt" on the Fox show "Glee" (via Facebook)