In a 1995 "Washington Post" article, Jim Marks cited Bawer's observation that (in Marks's paraphrase) "t gets harder to claim that gay men and lesbians are outside mainstream culture, when so much of mainstream culture—the Mona Lisa and Moby-Dick, to use Bawer's examples—is seen as the product of gay and lesbian minds." In a 1996 piece on gay marriage, "New York Times" columnist Frank Rich cited Bawer's view that there existed "a gentlemen's agreement" among Washington conservatives. He quoted Bawer as saying: "They say 'We'll socialize with you and your significant other and we'll all be charming, as long as you don't mention it in public, and we get to say anything we want in public.'" A 1997 "Washington Post" article about an upcoming episode of Ellen DeGeneres's sitcom, "Ellen", on which her character would come out of the closet, mimicking DeGeneres's own recent coming out, ended with a quote from Bawer. "People used to do courageous things without having a publicist around to tell the world."