AGLBICAL

"It always seemed to me a bit pointless to
disapprove of homosexuality.
It's like disapproving of rain."
Francis Maude

"We could learn a lot from crayons.
Some are sharp, some are pretty, and some are dull.

Some have weird names, and all are different colors.
But they all have to live in the same box."
Poster at Children's Hospital

COMING OUT

"Growing up, I felt there was something about me that truly set me apart from other kids. But I didn't have a grasp of what it was. I had a few fleeting crushes on girls, then, a full-blown crush. Inside, they felt right and normal. But at the same time, I didn't have any way to process those feelings because I didn't know any gay people or know that I knew them. I felt that I would risk something if I expressed my feelings. Then I started playing on my college rugby team - which had some lesbian players - and for the first time I saw women being openly affectionate to each other. It was like being dropped into what was originally a foreign country but, once there, I realized it was my country of origin. I thought, Wow, the feelings I've been having are normal. It is okay to be who I am."
Candace Gingrich / Manager of HRC's National Coming Out Project / Sister of Former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich

"The world changes in direct proportion to the number of people willing to be honest about their lives."
Armistead Maupin / Writer

"I wanted to be out so I could relax and be me."
Melissa Etheridge / Musician

"It's great to be out and proud."
Greg Louganis / Olympic gold-medal diver at Gay Games opening ceremonies

"I just wish more of my fellow queers would come out sometimes. It's nice out here, you know?"
Elton John / Accepting Distinguished Achievement Award from Elizabeth Taylor at Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center's 25th anniversary blowout

"I'd rather be black than gay because when you're black you don't have to tell your mother."
Charles Pierce

"When my friends and I came out in college, the other students took an obvious dislike to us. It was hateful. horrible rhetoric - and divisive. I lost some friends. I felt like they just couldn't step up to the plate. It was very hard - really hard - to deal with that, and to tell them that they were not being very supportive. You learn many valuable lessons about what friendship means. It's those first five minutes in coming out to your friends and acquaintances that are really the hardest. But after that - things get better than before. The most important thing you can do is come out. People's hearts have to change - and when a person meets someone who is gay, that more than anything seems to make them understand and take on new attitudes."
Suzanne Westenhofer / Comedian

"Silence kills the soul; it diminishes its possibilities to rise and fly and explore. Silence withers what makes you human. The soul shrinks, until it’s nothing."
Marlon Riggs / Filmmaker

"The day we stop resisting our instincts, we’ll have learned how to live.
Federico Garicia Lorca / Poet and Playwright

PRIDE

"I’m not willing to be tolerated. That wounds my love of love and liberty."
Jean Cocteau / Writer and Director

"The next time you feel you have to say, “I love you” to someone, say it to yourself – and see if you believe it."
Harvey Feirstein / Playwright, Torchsong Trilogy

"Whatever the public blames you for, cultivate it; it is yourself."
Jean Cocteau / writer

"It is better to be hated for what one is than to be loved for what one isn’t."
Andre Gider / Writer

"There’s nothing I need from anyone except love and respect, and anyone who can’t give me those two things has no place in my life."
Harvey Fierstein / Playwright, Torch Song Trilogy

"You always have to remember – no matter what you’re told – that God loves all the flowers, even the wild ones that grow on the side of the highway."
Cyndi Lauper / Musician

"There’s nothing wrong with being gay, so to deny it is to make a judgement."
Keanu Reeves / Actor

"Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."
Jamin Raskin, getting to the point, in a debate over a proposed constitutional amendment to the Maryland state constitution to prevent gay couples from having legal marriage rights

"They have every right to be as miserable as the rest of us."
Kinky Friedman (mystery novelist and former frontman for Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys bluegrass band, who is running for Governor of Texas as an Independent and supports gay marriage)

"No government has the right to tell its citizens when or whom to love. The only queer people are those who don't love anybody."
Rita Mae Brown, speech, 28 August 1982

PHILOSOPHICAL

"I am the love that dare not speak its name."
Lord Alfred Douglas / From poem Two Loves

"If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise."
Johann von Goethe

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
Dr. Seuss

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Every time you don't follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness."
Shakti Gawain

"Everybody's journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality."
James Baldwin

"Is life not a hundred times too short for us to stifle ourselves."
Friedrich Nietzsche

"It's a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy."
Lucille Ball

"Protect marriage? Puhlease. With a 50 percent divorce rate, rampant domestic violence, Las Vegas drive-through chapels, and I wanna-marry-a-really-rich-guy reality TV shows, there's no way gays could trash marriage the way straight people have."
Good Times / Santa Cruz County News

"We shouldn't just allow gay marriage. We should insist on gay marriage. We should regard it as scandalous that two people could claim to love each other and not want to sanctify their love with marriage and fidelity."
David Brooks / New York Times

"Gay and lesbian people fall in love. We settle down. We commit our lives to one another. We raise our children. We protect them. We try to be good citizens."
California Sen. Sheila Kuehl After California Senate approved gay marriage bill

"The consecration of Gene Robinson as bishop of the New Hampshire Diocese of the Episcopal Church is an affront to Christians everywhere. I am just thankful that the church's founder, Henry VIII, and his wife Catherine of Aragon, and his wife Anne Boleyn, and his wife Jane Seymour, and his wife Anne of Cleves, and his wife Katherine Howard, and his wife Catherine Parr are no longer here to suffer through this assault on traditional Christian marriage."

"The people who would forbid gays from marrying in the country are those who would have made Rosa Parks sit in the back of the bus.”
Jason West / Mayor of New Paltz, NY

“Discrimination is discrimination no matter who the victim is, and it is always wrong. There are no special rights in America, despite the attempts by many to divide blacks and the gay community with the argument that the latter are seeking some imaginary special rights at the expense of blacks. ”
Julian Bond / NAACP Board Chairman

“At the end of the day it doesn’t matter which group is most oppressed or whether they are identically oppressed, what matters is that no group be oppressed.”
Keith Boykin / President of The National Black Justice Coalition

“I am in the valley of prayer on the issue of gay marriage, and I will err on the side of inclusiveness and not exclusion. I’m going to follow Jesus and say, Whosoever will, let them come. And I’m going to extend rights to all of God’s children and if I am wrong, God will have to judge me.
Rev. Joseph Lowery / Founder of Southern Christian Leadership Conference

HUMOR

"Bisexuality immediately doubles your chances for a date on Saturday night."
Woody Allen

"Closets are for clothes."
Bumper sticker

"If homosexuality is a disease, let's all call in queer to work: Hello. Can't work today, still queer."
Robin Tyler

"If Michelangelo had been straight, the Sistine Chapel would have been wallpapered."
Robin Tyler

"Did you hear about the Scottish drag queen? He wore pants."
Lynn Lavne

"It wasn’t easy telling my parents that I’m gay. I told them at Thanksgiving. I said “Mom would you please pass the gravy to a homosexual?” She passed it to my father. A terrible scene followed."
Bob Smith / Member of the comedy group, Funny Gay Males

"I think gay people are like blondes: There’re fewer of them but they have more fun."
Rita Mae Brown / Writer

"Homosexuality is God’s way of insuring that the truly gifted aren’t burdened with children."
Sam Austin / Composer & Lyricist

"You could move."
Abigail Van Buren, "Dear Abby," in response to a reader who complained that a gay couple was moving in across the street and wanted to know what he could do to improve the quality of the neighborhood

"There are easier things in life than being a drag queen. But I ain’t got no choice. Try as I may, I just can’t walk in flats."
Harvey Fierstein / Filmmaker

"Homophobia: The irrational fear the three fags will break into your house and redecorate it against your will."
Tom Ammiano / Comic

"When people have asked me in the past if I’m gay, I’ve said “I’m not gay, but I’m festive.”
Sharon Gless / Actress

"I think it’s interesting that when you play a lesbian, people ask you if you’re a lesbian, but if you play a serial killer, nobody asks you if you’re a serial killer."
Nora Dunn / Actress

"You’re kidding. You really are queer. But you’re so attractive."
Leslie Ann Warren / Actress, from the film Victor/Victoria

"I don't mind straight people as long as they act gay in public."
T-shirt Worn by Chicago Bulls transvestite Dennis Rodman during a network-TV interview

HUMAN RIGHTS

"You cannot demand your rights, civil or otherwise, if you are unwilling to say what you are."
Merle Miller / Writer

"Few contemporary cultures are as hostile to homosexuality as America’s is."
Myron Brenton / Writer, The American Male

"Whenever a society wants to demonize a particular group, it prohibits them from marrying."
California Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl on state governments legislating against gay marriages

"How dare you make my life a felony."
Sign held at 1987 Sandra Day O’ Connor speech

"If gay and lesbian people are given civil rights, then everyone will want them!"
Author unknown / As seen on a button

EVERYDAY

"I am reminded of a colleague who reiterated all my homosexual patients are quite sick - to which I finally replied so are all my heterosexual patients.
Ernest van den Haag / Psychotherapist

"I get sick of listening to straight people complain about, Well, hey, we don't have a heterosexual-pride day, why do you need a gay-pride day? I remember when I was a kid I'd always ask my mom: Why don't we have a Kid's Day? We have a Mother's Day and a Father's Day, but why don't we have a Kid's Day? My mom would always say, Every day is Kid's Day. To all those heterosexuals that bitch about gay pride, I say the same thing: Every day is heterosexual-pride day! Can't you people enjoy your banquet and not piss on those of us enjoying our crumbs over here in the corner?"
Rob Nash

"I'm a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being... by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant."
Paul Newman

ETHNIC

"Lesbians of color should be visible as possible. We are a part of the movement and are sometimes invisible."
Banda Goddard, marcher at gay rally

ORIENTATION/GENDER

"I don’t think there is such a thing as a precise sexual orientation. I think we’re all ambiguous sexually."
Tennessee Williams / Playwright

"The opportunity to be threatened, humiliated and to live in fear of being beaten to death is the only 'special right' our culture bestows on homosexuals."
Diane Carman / Denver Post

"You just can’t say lesbianism hurts women’s golf. It’s more correct to say homophobia does."
Donna Lopiano / Executive Director of the Women’s Sprots Foundation

"The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye: the more light you pour on it, the more it will contract."
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. / American Jurist

"To compare rich, privileged homosexual lobby groups allied with transsexuals and sadomasochists to brave civil rights crusaders — who risked their lives to advance freedom — insults every black American who overcame real injustice and poverty. It’s time for the homosexual lobby to stop co-opting the black civil rights struggle. The [National Gay and Lesbian] Task Force’s agenda of promoting perversion — including public homosexual sex, sadomasochism and bisexuality — would offend the vast majority of African-Americans who understand the difference between God-designed racial distinctions and changeable, immoral behavior.”

"I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people."

"Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood. This sets the stage for further repression and violence that spread all too easily to victimize the next minority group."

"We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny . . . I can never be what I ought to be until you are allowed to be what you ought to be."

"I've always felt that homophobic attitudes and policies were unjust and unworthy of a free society and must be opposed by all Americans who believe in democracy. The civil rights movement thrives on unity and inclusion, not division and exclusion. My husband's struggle parallels that of the gay rights movement."

"For many years now, I have been an outspoken supporter of civil and human rights for gay and lesbian people. Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in Albany, Ga. and St. Augustine, Fla., and many other campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement. Many of these courageous men and women were fighting for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and I salute their contributions."

"We have a lot more work to do in our common struggle against bigotry and discrimination. I say “common struggle” because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination."

"For too long, our nation has tolerated the insidious form of discrimination against this group of Americans, who have worked as hard as any other group, paid their taxes like everyone else, and yet have been denied equal protection under the law.... I believe that freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. My husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' On another occasion he said, 'I have worked too long and hard against segregated public accommodations to end up segregating my moral concern. Justice is indivisible.' Like Martin, I don’t believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others. The great promise of American democracy is that no group of people will be forced to suffer discrimination and injustice."

RELIGION

My sexual orientation is not a sickness to be healed or a sin to be forgiven. My sexual orientation is a gift from my Creator to be accepted, celebrated, and lived with integrity.

"It is never legitimate to use the words of scripture to promote a loveless agenda."
Right Rev. Dr. Peter Short / Moderator of United Church of Canada

"The Bible contains six admonishments to homosexuals and 362 admonishments to heterosexuals. That doesn't mean that God doesn't love heterosexuals. It's just that they need more supervision."
Lynn Lavner

"It took the Catholic Church 359 years to admit that they were wrong when they accused Galileo of heresy and condemned him to death, unless he recanted that the earth rotates around the sun. Since he wanted to live, he was forced to deny the truth and agree with the Church that the sun rotates around the earth, but he was still placed under house arrest until his death.

"The Church is powerful and has a history of pressuring society and individuals to say and believe what "the Church" thinks is right. They were wrong then and they are wrong now regarding homosexuality. Let's hope it doesn't take them that long this time to discover and admit their error."

"The Scriptures have been misused to defend bloody crusades and inquisitions; to support slavery, apartheid, and segregation; to sanction the physical and emotional abuse of women and children; to persecute Jews and other non-Christian people of faith; to support the holocaust of Hitler's Third Reich; to oppose medical science; to condemn inter-racial marriage; to execute women as witches; to excuse the violent racism of the Ku Klux Klan; to mobilize militias, white supremacy and neo-nazi movements; and to condone intolerance and discrimination against sexual minorities. "
Mel White / Letter to Jerry Falwell