“As we women know, there are so many other hurdles that we have to cross that I would love it if we could stop having the race conversation so that we can get women further on. You know, a female president now that we have an African American president. Maybe we can get an Asian female, a gay person?” IfsKnowsPersonsPresidentRaceGayConversationFemaleCrossesAfrican AmericanAsianHurdleAmerican PresidentHurdling ObstaclesFemale President Author:Octavia Spencer
“The fact that women are very young in obtaining their civil rights and African-Americans are young in obtaining their civil rights, I think it's about time that we extend that to all Americans, whether straight, gay, purple, green, black, brown.” ThinkingFactsYoungBlackRightsGayGreenCivil RightsAfrican AmericanBrownPurpleObtaining Author:Octavia Spencer
“Despite our founding principles and the many ways our constitution has protected individual liberties, we do, let's admit it, have a long history of shutting people out--african americans, women, gays and lesbians, people with disabilities--and throughout our history, we have found too many ways to divide and exclude people from their ownership of the law and protection under the law.” PeopleWayLongLawFoundIndividualLibertyPrinciplesGayConstitutionProtectionDespiteAfrican AmericanDividesDisabilityProtectedOwnershipFoundingIndividual LibertyPeople With Disabilities Author:Hillary Clinton
“This is America, where a white Catholic male Republican judge was murdered on his way to greet a Democratic Jewish woman member of Congress, who was his friend. Her life was saved initially by a 20-year old Mexican-American gay college student, and eventually by a Korean-American combat surgeon, all eulogized by our African American President.” WayYearsAmericaPresidentWhiteStudentsCollegeJudgingRepublicanGayMembersCatholicDemocraticMalesCongressSavedAfrican AmericanCombatMexicanSurgeonsKoreanAmerican PresidentCollege StudentsMexican American Author:Mark Shields
“Ultimately, the main reason that you want more women in the sciences is the same reason you want more gay men in the sciences. It's the same reason you want more Latinos or African Americans; it's because if you come at a problem from a different perspective, you will be offering a creative vision that wasn't there before.” IfsMenWantDifferentReasonProblemVisionCreativePerspectiveGayAfrican AmericanOfferingLatinoGay MenDifferent PerspectiveCreative Vision Author:Cara Santa Maria
“I think there are profound differences between the civil rights struggle for African Americans and the civil rights struggle for gay Americans.” ThinkingDifferencesStruggleRightsGayProfoundCivil RightsAfrican American Author:Christopher Rice
“There's a sorry history of these kinds of charges of bias being leveled at women and judges of color, and also gay and lesbian judges. The theory being that they're going to be incapable of a disinterested judgment on matters that involve their own identity groups. And it came up famously for Constance Baker Motley who was one of the first African American federal judges in a case involving sex discrimination.” FirstsKindMatterSexCasesGroupsIdentityColorJudgingTheoryGayJudgmentSorryDiscriminationAfrican AmericanBiasIncapableInvolvingBakersDisinterestedFederal JudgesSex Discrimination Author:Deborah Rhode
“I go back to the parallels with 1963, 1964 when white America really became aware of the brutality of segregation, the cruelty of the apartheid system which existed in the south. Then white people began to get on the freedom buses and travel to the south and be part of the voter registration drives and they... some of them were beaten and some of them were murdered but they stood with the African-American community and the civil rights movement. It's time for straight people to do that today and it is time for gay people to insist that they do that today.” PeopleTodayAmericaCommunityWhiteRightsMovementGaySouthCrueltyCivil RightsAfrican AmericanVotersBusBeatenSegregationParallelsBrutalityCivil Rights MovementGay PeopleApartheidRegistrationVoter Registration Author:Cleve Jones
“We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old - and that's the criterion by which I'll be selecting my judges.” NeedsHeartYoungMotherPoorJudgingMomGayEmpathyAfrican AmericanTeenageCriteriaDisabled Author:Barack Obama
“In today's US, it's possible for almost anyone - women, gays, African-Americans, Jews - to run for, and be elected to, high office.” RunningTodayGayOfficeJewAfrican American Author:Salman Rushdie
“When women got the vote, they did not redefine voting. When African-Americans got the right to sit at a lunch counter alongside white people, they did not redefine eating out. They were simply invited to the table. That is all we want to do; we have no desire to change marriage. We want to be entitled to not only the same privileges but the same responsibilities as straight people.” PeopleWantDesireWhiteResponsibilityGayEatingVoteTablesPrivilegeAfrican AmericanVotingLunchEntitledInvitedGay MarriageDesire To ChangeEating Out Author:Cynthia Nixon