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Me. Myself. Gay. Part 2: Collection of Inspiring WordsNov 21 '03 (Updated May 26 '04) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Words of hope, reason, and joy.
This is my second entry in my series of musings, observations, and statements about this gay life. I've collected some various quotes from many sources, books, web sites, etc. The collection is still growing. These all pertain to us in some way. Some are whimsical. Others are profound. So that others may be inspired as I have, I present them here. "Love between two persons, whether of the same sex or of a different sex, is to be treasured and respected. To love another, whether of the same sex or of a different sex, is to have entered the area of richest human experience." ~ Cardinal Basil Hume "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." ~ from Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire 1947 "We must make it clear that a platform of ‘I hate gay men and women’ is not a way to become President of the United States." ~ Jimmy Carter "You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists." ~ Abbie Hoffman "I had rather be hated for what I am than be loved for what I am not." – Andre Gide "To see yourself as the world sees you may be very brave, but it can be very foolish. Why should you accept the world’s view of you as a weak willed neurotic – better dead than alive? What right have they to judge? To judge you they must have the capacity to feel as you feel. And who has? One in a thousand. You alone know how unequal the battle has always been that your will had to fight." – Terrence Rattigan, The Deep Blue Sea, 1952 "Every friend loves, but not all men who love are friends. You’ll find this true, then, whomsoever you may love, be his friend too." – an epigram by Martial, a Spanish poet 40-104 AD "Why can’t they have gay people in the military? Personally, I think they are just afraid of a thousand gay guys with M16s going, ‘who’d you call a f*gg*t?’." - John Stewart "A hard man is good to find." – Anonymous "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." – Martina Navratilova, tennis champ "Today, after years of struggling with the shame of being different – a shame I think all gay people grow up with – I’ve learned that my difference is often my strength." – Dorthy Atcheson "No matter how far in or out of the closet you are you still have a next step." – ad slogan at the 1987 March on Washington "A person’s sexuality is so much more than one word ‘gay’. No one refers to anyone as just ‘hetero’ because that doesn’t say anything. Sexual identity is broader than a label." – Gus Van Sant, U.S. gay filmmaker "Okay, conservatives have changed my mind. Allowing gay marriage, I have been persuaded, will destroy the family, weaken Western civilization, turn America into Sodom and Gomorrah, increase the trade deficit with Japan, endanger the family farm and promote tooth decay. The impeccable logic of conservative opponents is simply too powerful to deny." – Stephen Chapman "We perceive when love begins and when it declines by our embarrassment when alone together." – La Bruyere "Intimacy is the touching of hearts." – Sally Fisher "A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous." – Ingrid Bergman "One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is love." – Sophocles "In homosexual sex you know exactly what the other person is feeling, so you are identifying with the other person completely. In heterosexual sex, you have no idea what the other person is feeling." – William Burroughs "How beautiful maleness is, if it finds its right expression." - D.H. Lawrence "Each time a gay person finds the closet morally acceptable for himself or others, he degrades himself as gay and sinks to the level of abjection dictated for gays by the dominant culture. No gay person with sufficient self respect and dignity can be required to view himself or other gays in this way." - Richard Mohr "I hate discrimination. I’ve fought against it all along. How dare anybody tell somebody else they can’t do a certain thing in their own bedroom. How dare they say you can’t have children, you can’t put a significant other on your insurance? How DARE they!" - Liza Minnelli "The more gays are out, the more they become known and accepted as friends, family and co-workers. The more they are accepted, the more they can come out. This cycle of ‘outness’ is at the root of changed attitudes and policy." – Ellen Goodman "Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life, but define yourself." – Harvey Fierstien "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our won fear: our presence of automatically liberates others." – Marianne Williamson "The next time someone asks you, ‘Hey, howdja get to be homosexual anyway?’ tell them, ‘Homosexuals are chosen first on talent, then interview, then the swimsuit and evening gown competition pretty much gets rid of the rest of them." – Karen Williams "They gave me a medal for killing a man, and a discharge for loving one." – Sergeant Leonard Matlovich "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." – Albert Einstein "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 "If you judge people, you have no time to love them." – Mother Theresa "The day we stop resisting our instincts, we’ll have learned how to love." – Frederico Garcia Lorca "Within you I lose myself. Without you I find myself wanting to be lost again." – Unknown "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 "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." – Oscar Wilde "It’s not the men in your life that count, it’s the life in your men." – Mae West "Men and women, women and men. It will never work." – Erica Jong "If you gave me $1 million tomorrow and told me to promote homosexuality, I haven’t the faintest idea what I would do. What do you do? Have a contest? Make up posters? Put ads on television? The notion of promoting homosexuality is preposterous. Our agenda is very simple: Please leave us alone. Please let us be what we want to be and live our lives with others." – Barney Frank, (D)Massachusetts "I want someone who can give me mind as well as head." – Robin Williams "I absolutely believe in assimilation. I don’t believe I’m any different from straight people. My wants and needs are the same as theirs. I don’t look at sexual orientation as that big of a deal. It’s just an orientation." – Chastity Bono "When you think a little about it, it comes down to the idea of keeping a needless secret. You’re just hurting yourself. Coming out publicly turned out to be the best thing I ever did, from a personal and a professional standpoint. I feel that there’s nothing I can’t do now." – Sir Ian McKellen "The most important political step that any gay man or lesbian can take is to come out of the closet. It’s been proven that it is easier to hate us and to fear us if you can’t see us." – Amanda Bearse "What are you trying to protect heterosexual marriages from? There isn’t a limited amount of love in Iowa. It isn’t a non-renewable resource. If Amy and Barbara or Mike and Steve love each other, it doesn’t mean that John and Mary can’t." – State Rep. Ed Fallon "The gay label doesn’t really bother me, as long as it’s just not something that is restrictive. I just don’t think one should live one’s life as a gay man. I don’t think that sexuality necessarily implies a life style package that comes with it." – Neil Tennant "The only abnormality is the incapacity to love." - Anais Nin "At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet." - Plato "I just wish more of my fellow queers would come out sometimes. It’s nice out here, you know?" - Elton John The Premier Epinions - November 2003 Related Links Part I Part III  |
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