I never felt I had anything to hide. I never felt being gay was anything to be ashamed of, so I never felt apologetic. I didn't have issues with it, didn't grow up with any religion, so I didn't have any religious, you know, issues to deal with as far as homosexuality is concerned. So, I accepted it very easily. For me, it wasn't that big a deal.
But when I did think about it and looked at the whole package - the producers behind the show, the writers, the cast I would be working with - I would have been a fool to turn it down just because the role for me was another gay role.
Being a young actor in the industry, I had a lot of people who strongly advised me to stay quiet. That was hard to live with. But I've never played a gay role before, and I didn't want to be limited by some strange perception.
I'm, like, a person who likes love. And I can find love in any type of person. I've dated girls, and I've liked girls. But they're usually straight girls, so it never works out. I mean, I'm not that gay, so I don't have the energy to convince someone else to be gay, you know?
In 1978, when I thought of creating a flag for the gay movement, there was no other international symbol for us than the pink triangle, which the Nazis used to identify homosexuals in concentration camps. Even though the pink triangle was and still is a powerful symbol, it was very much forced upon us.
I realized I was gay in the shower one day with Barbra Streisand. It happened while I was lathering, rinsing, and repeating with Pert Plus. As I was belting out the chorus to my favorite song from 'Funny Girl,' 'Oh my man, I love him so, he'll never know...' it hit me.
I was part of a show called 'Manifest Equality' in Los Angeles in 2010, and I realized there was a disconnect between people who are gay or have gay friends and are gay-friendly, and people who think they don't know any gay people.
Yesterday Senator John Kerry changed his mind and now supports the ban on gay marriages. I'm telling you this guy has more positions than Paris Hilton.
I think it's great now that we seem to be in an era where it's OK to be gay and I think that the society in North America has had more of a problem with it than any other society.
The moment to tell my barber I was gay just never came up.
I'm for human lib, the liberation of all people, not just black people or female people or gay people.
I had heard before that there were rumors I was gay. It's funny. My cousin gets his hair cut at this place, and one of the guys there told him that Scott Wolf was gay. He didn't realize that he was my cousin.
I'm trying to appeal to the disenfranchised everybody, not just specifically gay.
My dream is to have a gay son.
Well, marriage doesn't function in the way it used to in terms of deciding our fate, but it's in our heads, and it determines a lot of our actions. Like, right now, if you think about gay marriage - and they just started having the first gay marriages in New York - it shows what a potent idea marriage remains for people.
I have put gay dating on the map.
With the rise of the push for gay rights, it is beyond wanting there to be an appreciation and respect for gay rights. Now a segment of our population is seeking to have that right trump religious freedom.
There are a lot of myths about gay people.
The gay bunting erects his white crest, and gives utterance to the joy he feels in the presence of his brooding mate; the willow grouse on the rock crows his challenge aloud; each floweret, chilled by the night air, expands its pure petals; the gentle breeze shakes from the blades of grass the heavy dewdrops.
I'm an activist for gay marriage equality and children's rights. I'm the face of Share Our Strength.
It's going to take generations of gay people marrying before these things start to feel natural. We haven't had it long enough to remake it as our own, so it does feel like you're getting dressed up in straight drag to do it.
Any professional athlete who gets on TV or radio and says he never played with a gay guy is a stone-freakin' idiot.
Being from New York, if you're gay, you're gay. I think it's important that if you are gay, you not be afraid to say who you are.
One of my favorite episodes was the one in which Homer grew hair. That was a very unique episode, since there was a gay secretary, but that wasn't even the issue of the show-the issue was Homer's image changing because he had hair.
I was born gay, just as I was born black.
Through the years, I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who have shared how much they relate to my 'Sordid Lives' family, and how many gay men and women used it to come out to their conservative families through the humor of the film.
A lot of straight actors are actively searching for gay roles because it is something different to do.
I would love to be on 'Glee,' thus furthering the myth that I'm a gay man.
I always knew I was gay. I always knew that somehow it would work out.
How many gangsters you know, from Al Capone up to John Gotti, been gay?
Here is the real domino theory - gay man to gay man, bisexual man to straight woman, addict mother to newborn baby, they all fall down and someday it will come to you.
I don't understand what the big deal is with gay marriage. Get over it, people.
Honestly, if the worst these people can say about me is that I'm gay, then I think I'll be fine. I can handle it.
Usually, people who don't have a broad perspective see gay people as servants - as people who are there to make them look good.
If there are countries that discriminate against the gay community, they are the countries that I will not spend my own personal money. I will go for work there, but I will not spend my own money there. Why would I?
Obviously the transgender movement has not progressed in the way that the gay and lesbian movement has. But I'm an activist - that's just the kind of person I am.
