Mainstream American society finds it easiest to be tolerant when the outsider chooses to minimize the differences that separate him from the majority. The country club opens its doors to Jews. The university welcomes African-Americans. Heterosexuals extend the privilege of marriage to the gay community.
My cousin's gay, he went to London only to find out that Big Ben was a clock.
I've never really worked on them. Just once in a while one hits me and makes me laugh. My Al Gore was sort of like a gay Gomer Pyle.
In my opinion it's not about gay or straight or bi, we're attracted to spirits, whatever body they're in. There are other reasons too, but that's how I see it.
We hope we are moving toward a world where sexual orientation is not an issue, because we hate the idea of a gay ghetto. I think that it's a real shame that people become restricted by their sexuality or define their whole lives by their sexuality.
I think gay marriage should be the national law.
In the gay (Catholic) community, it would seem, the maxim is: love the sin and love the sinner, but hate anyone who calls it a sin or him a sinner.
Gay guys love women who are tough, who are survivors. They always call me a diva. And I am a survivor; I've pulled through everything and I've not become bitter about it.
Whether you look at 'Glee' and its normalization of gay identity or you look at the work of Martin Scorsese and the Italian-American community, American culture is able to take these stories, which are seen as marginalized, and just turn them into American stories. And you don't think twice about it.
A lot of gay men are in delusion if they think they're super macho.
I cannot be a placard waver for every campaign; that's why I have mostly kept quiet about gay marriage.
The first gay people we elect must be strong. They must not be content to sit in the back of the bus. They must not be content to accept pablum. They must be above wheeling and dealing.
We're not thought of in terms of color because we are entertainers. We are there to entertain you not because we are black, white, pink, or green or gay or straight or because we are Catholic or Protestant.
People should be allowed to marry, and gay marriage should be out there. If a man or a woman has a good partner and they love each other with their heart and soul, let them marry. I am very much for gay marriage.
There are brilliant out lesbians and gay men and bisexuals and transgendered people and heterosexuals keeping the fire of change alive. Not a day goes by when I don't feel grateful to them for their work.
I knew that I was different when I was six years old, but it wasn't until I got to about 10 or 11 that I realised I was a gay man.
For some strange reason, my gay life didn't get easier when I came out. Quite the opposite happened, really.
There are some people that the press like to pick on and not just the gay press, but the press in general. And some people, the press just doesn't care about at all.
As anyone who is gay will confirm, being that way is not something you become, it is a set of emotional and physical responses that just are.
I know there are nights when I have power, when I could put on something and walk in somewhere, and if there is a man who doesn't look at me, it's because he's gay.
An awful lot of gay pop stars pretend to be straight. I'm going to start a movement of straight pop stars pretending to be gay.
It was one of the most exciting, perfect evenings of my life, my solo debut at Carnegie Hall. And knowing we were all there to raise money for Gay Men's Health Crisis made the evening an extraordinary experience.
Part of me looks at the gay movement now and worries that we're losing our individuality.
I don't think Ripley is gay. He appreciates good looks in other men, that's true. But he's married in later books. I'm not saying he's very strong in the sex department. But he makes it in bed with his wife.
David Bowie and Boy George created a safely contained theatrical expression of gay style.
These names: gay, queer, homosexual are limiting. I would love to finish with them. We're going to have to decide which terms to use and where we use them. For me to use the word 'queer' is a liberation; it was a word that frightened me, but no longer.
It takes a lot of guts to come out to your friends and family. For most gay people, coming out is the most traumatic experience in their life because of the worry about the backlash: 'What's going to happen? Are my parents going to accept me? Are my friends going to accept me? Are my sisters and brothers going to accept me?'
Even now, there are young actors who want careers as romantic leading men, and the best thing is not to reveal you're gay.
I'm a gay man who came from the last years of illegality. That focused my whole character. I think it focused everyone's character in a way. You saw yourself as outside of the main structure.
I extend that to the abortion issue, I extend that to the so-called gay rights issue, I think this is a freedom principle and consistent with the analysis in the economic area as well.
When I was going to gay bars in my 20s and 30s, the older guys there explained to me that the police would occasionally raid these places and march the clients out, load them onto paddy wagons, drive them down to the station, photograph them, fingerprint them and put their names on a list. They were doing nothing wrong, and it was criminalized.
I was influenced by big, strong voices - writers like Elizabeth Bowen, Virginia Woolf, Jane Bowles; gay writers like Ed White, Michael Cunningham, Allen Hollinghurst; and contemporary lesbian writers, like Dorothy Allison.
Unlike people of my generation, my children and my grandchildren have grown up living with, knowing, people who were outwardly gay and lesbian. And they have learned that they're just like us... And when you see that they're just like us, the rationale for discrimination melts away.
These awful middle-class queens - which is what the gay movement has become - are so tiresome. It's all Abercrombie & Fitch and strollers.
Just by being out you're doing your part. It's like recycling. You're doing your part for the environment if you recycle; you're doing your part for the gay movement if you're out.
Gay rights is not something most of us think about - because most of us happen to have been born straight.
