“If I could take all my parts with me when I go somewhere / and not have to say to one of them, ‘No, you stay home tonight, you won’t be welcome’/ because I’m going to an all-white party where I can be gay but not Black / Or I’m going to a Black poetry reading, and half the poets are anti-homosexual / or thousands of situations where something of what I am cannot come with me / The day all the different parts of me can come along / we would have what I would call / a revolution” IfsI CanDifferentHomeReadingBlackWhitePartyHalfSituationPoetRevolutionGayWelcomeIf I CouldTonightBlack PeopleHomosexualityHomosexualGay PrideLesbianismAnti GayAnti DiscriminationPoetry Reading Author:Pat Parker
“I've got to think about what I'm going to say very carefully. There's two avenues of thought: Do you stop everyone going, ban all the artists coming in from Russia? But then you're really leaving the men and women who are gay and suffering under the antigay laws in an isolated situation. As a gay man, I can't leave those people on their own without going over there and supporting them. I don't know what's going to happen, but I've got to go.” PeopleThinkingKnowsMenI CanTwoHappensLawArtistSufferingSituationHe ManGayMen And WomenLeavingRussiaIsolatedAvenuesBansGay Men Author:Elton John
“Since I spent eighteen years of my life as a child, and nine years of that life as a pretty sexually active gay child, my complaint against the current attitudes is that they work mightily to silence the voices of children first and secondarily ignore what adults have to say who have been through these situations. One size fits all is never the way to handle any situation with a human dimension. Many, many children-and I was one of them-are desperate to establish some sort of sexual relation with an older and even adult figure.” WayYearsFirstsHumansChildrenHas BeensVoiceSilenceAttitudeSituationFiguresFitGayAdultsRelationSizeCurrentsActiveNineHandleDesperateDimensionsComplaintsEighteenSexuallyNine YearsOne Size Fits All Author:Samuel R. Delany
“By seeing a same-sex couple in ordinary situations, that it might make people think twice about if they have, you know, questions about acceptance of LGBT equality, it's one way to just say that, you know, 'We're members of your family and gay people are like anybody else.'” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWayMightSexSituationSeeingAcceptanceCoupleGayMembersOrdinaryOne WayOur FamilyLgbtGay PeopleThink Twice Author:George Takei
“Having had been not so well traveled as a kid, as most teenagers aren't, I always thought, "Okay I'm going to focus my energy on rap and the rap game, because that's how I'm going to be able to pay rent and pay off my school loans." But seeing the reaction with this whole gay rap situation has made me not want to play into it at all anymore and just make whatever.” WantWellsMadePlayWholeKidsAbleSchoolGamesEnergyPaySituationFocusSeeingGayOkayRapReactionsTeenagerTraveledLoan Author:Le1f
“Ang [Lee] gave us a lot of books about cowboys who had been gay or stories about it and all that stuff. And I just talked to a lot of my friends - who [was] their first, particularly same-sex, first situation. That was fascinating to me - trying to learn what that was in a certain period of time. Certain age. The secrecy involved in it. All those things.” TryingFirstsBookStoriesAgeCertainSexStuffSituationInvolvedPeriodsGayMy FriendsFascinatingCowboySecrecy Author:Jake Gyllenhaal
“It'll be taught in homes that it's not okay to make fun of a kid because he's gay or it's not okay to make fun of a girl cause she's fat. But that we have been living for so long in a culture where so many people's parents supported those beliefs that there wasn't any infrastructure for children understanding right and wrong in those situations, if that makes sense.” PeopleIfsChildrenLongHas BeensHomeKidsCultureGirlBeliefFunCausesParentUnderstandingSituationTaughtGayOkayFatsMake SenseInfrastructureNot Okay Author:Lena Dunham
“I remember an experience once of a young man in our home who was gay. We just assumed it, based on his outward appearance. Gay people had a hard time in those days, in fifties since the police would create situations to lock them up.” PeopleMenHardHomeRememberYoungSituationGayPoliceAppearanceYoung ManHard TimesLocksGay PeopleOutward Appearance Author:David C. Driskell
“There are many agreements across the so-called "world religions," at a certain level of abstraction. But when it comes to applying them in concrete situations they may lead to incompatible decisions. As an example, some people think that Christian ideas of sexual modesty suggest that homosexuals should be locked up, some people think that they mean that the churches should recongize gay marriages. But everyone believes in sexual modesty. I think there are universal moral truths, whether or not everyone accepts them. Here's one very low level but important one: it's very bad to torture people.” PeopleThinkingWorldBelieveMeanImportantChristianChurchDecisionSituationAcceptingMoralGayTortureConcreteModestyHomosexualGay MarriageLocked Up Author:Kwame Anthony Appiah
“I've always believed that the great strength of the Internet is that it allows us to communicate with each other, it allows debate. And I think that gay marriage is a huge step forward. But debate is throwing ideas about, and when it becomes sort of a weapon of character assassination, I think that's crazy. I think the situation in America is different from in England, where we have civil partnership, and now the vote on gay marriage has been carried, and whether it will go through Parliament I don't know.” ThinkingDifferentCharacterSituationCrazyInternetGayVoteCommunicateDebatePartnershipAlways BelieveGay Marriage Author:Jeremy Irons
“The situation has a real Lovecraft feel to it. Though, you know, if you come over it'll be more of an Anne Rice situation. If you know what I mean." "Who's-" "Because you're gay.” IfsKnowsFeelsMeanRealSituationGayOver ItRiceLovecraft Author:David Wong
“As someone who has enjoyed visiting Russia in the past and can also claim a degree of Russian ancestry, it would make me happy to say yes. However, as a gay man, I must decline.” PeopleMenWayKindCountryGovernmentAttitudeSituationGayConscienceMen And WomenAnd LoveCurrentsOccasionsTreatmentDeniedAcceptableDeclineInvitationsGay MenLive And LoveRussian Government Author:Wentworth Miller