LGBTQIA+ Quotes for National Coming Out Day and Beyond
“If a transvestite doesn’t say ‘I’m gay and I’m proud and I’m a transvestite,’ then nobody else is going to hop up there and say ‘I’m gay and I’m proud and I’m a transvestite’ for them.” — Marsha P. Johnson “If you help elect more gay people, that gives a green light to all who feel disenfranchised a green light to move forward.” — Harvey Milk “The next time someone asks you why LGBT Pride marches exist or why Gay Pride Month is June tell them, ‘A bisexual woman named Brenda Howard thought it should be.’” — Brenda Howard “I learned compassion from being discriminated against. Everything bad that’s ever happened to me has taught me compassion.” — Ellen DeGeneres “What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it’s curved like a road through mountains.” — Tennessee Williams “Equality means more than passing laws. The struggle is really won in the hearts and minds of the community, where it really counts.” — Barbara Gittings “Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.” — Harvey Fierstein “All of us who are openly gay are living and writing the history of our movement. We are no more—and no less—heroic than the suffragists and abolitionists of the 19th century; and the labor organizers, Freedom Riders, Stonewall demonstrators, and environmentalists of the 20th century. We are ordinary people, living our lives, and trying as civil rights activist Dorothy Cotton said, to ‘fix what ain’t right’ in our society.” — Sen. Tammy Baldwin “Love is never wrong.” — Melissa Etheridge “There are worst things in life than kissing boys.” — Benjamin Alire Sáenz “We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers.” — Bayard Rustin “Our society needs to recognize the unstoppable momentum toward unequivocal civil equality for every gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender citizen of this country.” — Zachary Quinto “I’m living by example by continuing on with my career and having a full, rich life, and I am incidentally gay.” — Portia de Rossi “Every gay and lesbian person who has been lucky enough to survive the turmoil of growing up is a survivor. Survivors always have an obligation to those who will face the same challenges.” — Bob Paris “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” — Oscar Wilde “When you put love out in the world it travels, and it can touch people and reach people in ways that we never even expected.” — Laverne Cox “The Lord is my Shepherd and He knows I’m gay.” — Troy Perry “My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you.” — Audre Lorde “I hate the word homophobia. It’s not a phobia. You’re not scared. You’re an a**hole.” — Morgan Freeman “It is absolutely imperative that every human being’s freedom and human rights are respected, all over the world.”— Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir “Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters?” — James Baldwin “Gender and sexuality are so fluid. It’s OK to change your mind a million times and figure out what works for you. It’s OK to take your time.” — Amandla Stenberg “But I’m not a saint yet. I’m an alcoholic. I’m a drug addict. I’m homosexual. I’m a genius. Of course, I could be all four of these dubious things and still be a saint.” — Truman Capote “The only queer people are those who don’t love anybody.” — Rita Mae Brown “We deserve to experience love fully, equally, without shame, and without compromise.” — Elliot Page “I think being gay is a blessing, and it’s something I am thankful for every single day.” — Anderson Cooper “Nature made a mistake, which I have corrected.” — Christine Jorgensen “This community has fought and continues to fight a war of acceptance, a war of tolerance and the most relentless bravery. You are the definition of courage, do you know that?” — Lady Gaga “When all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free.” — Barack Obama “I’ve been embraced by a new community. That’s what happens when you’re finally honest about who you are; you find others like you.” — Chaz Bono “Openness may not completely disarm prejudice, but it’s a good place to start.” — Jason Collins “What I preach is: People fall in love with people, not gender, not looks, not whatever. What I’m in love with exists on almost a spiritual level.” — Miley Cyrus “The single best thing about coming out of the closet is that nobody can insult you by telling you what you’ve just told them.” — Rachel Maddow “Stonewall represented, absolutely, the first time that the LGBT community successfully fought back and forged an organized movement and community.” — Mark Segal “Being born gay, black and female is not a revolutionary act. Being proud to be a gay, black female is.” — Lena Waithe “Love demands expression. It will not stay still, stay silent, be good, be modest, be seen and not heard, no. It will break out in tongues of praise, the high note that smashes the glass and spills the liquid.” — Jeanette Winterson “The richness, beauty and depths of love can only be fully experienced in a climate of complete openness, honesty and vulnerability.” — Anthony Venn Brown “We should indeed keep calm in the face of difference, and live our lives in a state of inclusion and wonder at the diversity of humanity.” — George Takei “You don’t have to be gay to be a supporter—you just have to be a human.” — Daniel Radcliffe “Your judgments about another person say more about your own character than the character of the person you’re pointing a finger at.” — Alaric Hutchinson “I believe that no one should ever have to choose between a career we love and living our lives with authenticity and integrity.” — Selisse Berry “Personally, coming out was one of the most important things I’ve ever done, lifting from my shoulders the millstone of lies that I hadn’t even realized I was carrying.” — Sir Ian McKellen “There will always be enemies. Time to stop being your own.” — Larry Kramer “There’s nothing wrong with you. There’s a lot wrong with the world you live in.” — Chris Colfer “From a religious point of view, if God had thought homosexuality is a sin, he would not have created gay people.” — Howard Dean “We have to do it because we can no longer stay invisible. We have to be visible. We should not be ashamed of who we are.” — Sylvia Rivera “To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow—this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.” — Elizabeth Gilbert “I’m a young, bisexual woman, and I’ve spent a large part of my life trying to validate myself—to my friends, to my family, to myself—trying to prove that who I love and how I feel is not a phase.” — Halsey “You look ridiculous if you dance. You look ridiculous if you don’t dance. So you might as well dance.” — Gertrude Stein “The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.” — Gore Vidal Next, find out what every Pride flag means!
