Speaking Out

Cynthia Nixon

Star from Sex in the City

'It's time already....'Does me and my girlfriend getting married have any effect on you and your wife, or you and your husband sitting at home? I often hear the campaign to legalize same-sex marriage is an attack on traditional marriage and I wanna say you are not the ones being attacked, we are.' Cynthia revealed Christine, her partner since 2003, had proposed to her the previous month and they were hoping to marry in New York if the bill is passed.

Drew Barrymore

Actress/Producer

"People who I love are being affected by this—people who have defined who I am. This cannot happen. We have to change this. This is so wrong. With all my heart I could not feel more passionate about this."

George Clooney

Actor

"At some point in our lifetime, gay marriage won't be an issue, and everyone who stood against this civil right will look as outdated as George Wallace standing on the school steps keeping James Hood from entering the University of Alabama because he was black."

Harvey Fierstein

Actor/Singer

"We great Americans reached out and willfully put our name to language that denies an entire minority group their equal rights... Florida and California have now made it legal for gay men and lesbians to marry as long as we don't marry our partners. How much sense does that make?"

Gus Van Sant

Director/Writer

"Making gay marriage legal partly means not having a nongay person lording over you, deciding for you what you can and cannot have."

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi

Actress

"Here we just had a giant step toward equality and then on the very next day, we took a giant step away. I believe one day a 'ban on gay marriage' will sound totally ridiculous. In the meantime, I will continue to speak out for equality for all of us." - Ellen DeGeneres

Brad Pitt

Actor

"Because no one has the right to deny another their life, even though they disagree with it, because everyone has the right to live the life they so desire if it doesn't harm another and because discrimination has no place in America, my vote will be for equality and against Proposition 8."

Rosie O'Donnell

Actress

"When I got married, it was an act of civil disobedience as much as it was a love story. There is not any person in the country who doesn't know I'm for gay marriage."

Sean Penn

Actor/ Director

"Even the word 'issue' about this, it’s only an issue because of ignorance in the first place....if this movie is part of an engine to help reveal that, that’s going to make all of us really happy and proud."

Sam Harris

Actor

"Unfortunately, religion tends to separate questions of morality from the living reality of human and animal suffering. Consequently, religious people often devote immense energy to so-called 'moral' questions—such as gay marriage—where no real suffering is at issue, and they will inflict terrible suffering in the service of their religious beliefs."

Christina Aguilera

Singer

"I think it is discrimination and I don't understand how people can be so closed-minded and so judgmental. We chose an African-American president, and it means so much ... Why you would put so much money behind something stopping from people loving each other and bonding together?"

Midori Goto

Violinist

"It is completely inappropriate for the federal government to wade into an issue that is so deeply embedded in both religious practice and states’ rights. Furthermore, as the old saying goes, the horse is out of the barn. Even if such an amendment [as DOMA] were passed, in today’s world it is likely to be as effective as Prohibition was."

Willa Ford

Singer

“Let me state that I’m not gay and I am a faithful Christian, but I feel that by throwing the Bible around and targeting the gay and lesbian population, we as a country are doing the opposite of what we are supposed to be learning from the Bible.”

Cyndi Lauper

Singer and Songwriter

“When any two people love one another and are committed to one another, they should be allowed to marry."

Renée Fleming

Soprano Opera Singer

“I believe that marriage should be recognized as a publicly acknowledged legal contract by the states as the formal union of two individuals who care deeply for each other and wish to share their lives with each other. The validity of such a union should not be determined based on sexual orientation any more than it is determined by race or religious preference. The proposal that such a union would be made illegal by a constitutional amendment goes against the freedom our Constitution protects and will not enable us to enter into the kind of dialogue which has produced so much positive societal change in the past.”

Kris Kristofferson

Actor, Singer and Songwriter

“I’m married for 21 years, and I believe in a happy marriage, and I believe everyone is entitled to one. My children feel the same way, and my daughter was telling me to be sure that I voiced my opposition to the amendment [DOMA]."

Steven Page

Lead singer for Barenaked Ladies

“As a Canadian, I proudly tell my children that as of now they can marry whomever they choose and love whomever they love.… And I can tell my American friends that our country hasn’t disappeared into the ocean; nor have we all turned into pillars of salt."

André Watts

Classical Pianist

"There is already enough shame in this country about our past; let’s not act in a shameful way for our future.”

Fred Schneider

Singer,The B-52s

“America’s Constitution is about equal rights for all and the freedom to pursue happiness. We believe wholeheartedly in that vision. There should be no place in our Constitution for negative amendments."

Henry Rollins

Talks about Gay Marriage

Former Black Flag frontman and talk show host Henry Rollins is touring the country with a spoken word show called "Provoked". He spoke recently with the Cleveland Free Times about why he cares so much about gay rights.

Said Rollins: "I think it's really lame what's going on with those that are gay and I'm not gay. I was raised around gay folks. I was raised in the DC area. There are a lot of gay people there. My mom had gay friends. I had gay bosses. I worked at a movie theater and got propositioned four times a weekend. It was like, 'You like boys; nah, it's not going to be me.' I never wanted to kick some guy's ass. Some guys are creeps. But when you see the kind of hatred exacted at these people who can't help how they feel about men, it's sad. What if it was weird to be straight? What if someone said, 'What's wrong with you?' for staring at a woman? I think if Bill and Tom want to get married, they should be able to in America. If someone has a problem with that, go on your way."

Susan Ottaviano

Singer, Book of Love

“In ’92 George Bush [Sr.] misjudged the American people, and his obsession with family values cost him the reelection. I hope gay marriage will do the same thing for George W.”

Madonna

"I am very sad to hear we didn't win Proposition 8. But we will not give up the fight. No, we will not. Never! If we got an African-American in the White House, we can have gay marriages."

Samantha Ronson

Singer/Songwriter/DJ

"I guess people care more about farm animals than they do their fellow man, that's really sad to me... I just think it's frightening that people show more compassion for tomorrow's dinner than for the chef."

Melissa Etheridge

Singer/Songwriter

"[My wife] and I are not allowed the same right under the state constitution as any other citizen. Okay, so I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen... sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books."

Barbra Streisand

Singer

"Turning government into a marriage counselor is a joke ... a waste of time and money. It’s not a policy; it’s a diversion.“

Beth Bye

Connecticut State Representative

“I think for us [my wife and I], we really were married three years ago in our church....But it feels different that our state is saying, ‘now you’re married. You have the same rights as everyone else.’”

John Lewis

Georgia State Representative

"This discrimination is wrong. We cannot keep turning our backs on gay and lesbian Americans. I have fought too hard and too long against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation. I've heard the reasons for opposing civil marriage for same-sex couples. Cut through the distractions, and they stink of the same fear, hatred, and intolerance I have known in racism and in bigotry."

Robert "Bob" Barr

Former Georgia Representative, 2008 Libertarian Presidential Nominee, and Author of the Defense of Marriage Act

"DOMA is neither meeting the principles of federalism it was supposed to, nor is its impact limited to federal law....the heterosexual definition of marriage for purposes of federal laws -- including immigration, Social Security survivor rights and veteran's benefits -- has become a de facto club used to limit, if not thwart, the ability of a state to choose to recognize same-sex unions."

Charles "Chuck" Schumer

New York Senator

"Equality is something that has always been a hallmark of America and no group should be deprived of it....New York, which has always been at the forefront on issues of equality, is appropriately poised to take a lead on this issue."

Coretta Scott King

Civil Rights Activist

"Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union. A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriage."

Steve & Barb Young

Former Football Star & Wife

"We believe all families matter, and we do not believe in discrimination, therefore, our family will vote against Prop. 8."