“When I first moved to Nashville, I worked at Opryland and there are a lot of gay boys running around at those themeparks. I was afraid there was some identifiable factor in me that they could pick up on, that they might know that I was gay.”

— Country singer Chely Wright, who recently came out, in a candid interview last week with Oprah Winfrey (“Oprah” via ContactMusic.com, May 19)

“I will give you a scaring sentence so that the public be protected from people like you, so that we are not tempted to emulate this horrendous example.”

— Judge Nyakwawa Usiwa-Usiwa of Malawi, sentencing gay couple Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalangato to 14 years in prison under hard labor for “gross indecency.” The couple’s public engagement ceremony is believed to be the first for the nation, where homosexuality is illegal. Amnesty International has deemed the couple prisoners of conscience. (BBC News, May 20)

“How can they get 14 years simply for loving one another? Even if they are jailed for 20 years you can’t change their sexuality.”

— Grift Trapence, a leader of the human rights group Centre for Development of People, in Malawi (BBC News, May 20)

“Just over one year ago, when the Iowa Supreme Court decided to ignore Iowa law and grant same sex couples the ability to get married in our state, I predicted that the decision, absent action by the state legislature to enact a marriage license residency requirement, would turn Iowa into the gay marriage Mecca.”

— U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa,) arguing that to protect Iowa from gay “altar shoppers,” the state should enact a marriage license residency requirement and amend the state constitution to stop gay marriage.

Photo courtesy Chely.com