June is the best month of the year because it’s also the gayest. In honor of pride month, I’ve compiled 21 of my favorite quotes about being queer/the gay community. Even if you don’t feel accepted by loved ones, the LGBTQIA+ community will always be there for you. Be proud and realize that tons of people love you exactly as you 🙂
1) “Openness may not completely disarm prejudice, but it’s a good place to start.”
–Jason Collins, a retired professional basketball player. In 2014, he became the first openly gay male athlete to play in U.S. professional sports.
2) “All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential.”
–Harvey Milk, an American politician and the first openly gay elected official in the history of California, where he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. After serving only 11 months in office, Milk was assassinated on November 27, 1978. He was acutely aware of this possibility and is even quoted as saying, “If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.”
3) “It takes some intelligence and insight to figure out you’re gay and then a tremendous amount of balls to live it and live it proudly.”
–Jason Bateman, actor and gay rights activist.
4) “It is revolutionary for any trans person to choose to be seen and visible in a world that tells us we should not exist.”
–Laverne Cox, a transgender woman, actress and LGBT advocate who became famous for her role of Sophia Burset in Netflix series, Orange is the New Black.
5) “I very much want to inject gay culture into the mainstream. It’s not an underground tool for me. It’s my whole life.”
–Lady Gaga. In 2009, the singer and gay rights activist came out as bisexual. However, in recent years, it’s possible that her sexuality has changed.
6) “I think being gay is a blessing, and it’s something I am thankful for every single day.”
–Anderson Cooper, award-winning journalist, television personality and author. In 2012, Cooper publicly came out as gay. 
7) “If you are in the closet and fall in love with someone of the same gender, it doesn’t automatically remove the shame and fear that’s kept you locked away. The love you are experiencing encourages you to face the reality that this is who you really are and also has the power to set you free. The richness, beauty and depths of love can only be fully experienced in a climate of complete openness, honesty and vulnerability. Love, the most powerful of human emotions, is calling you to freedom and wholeness.”
–Anthony Venn Brown, a former Australian evangelist in the Assemblies of God and an author whose book, A Life of Unlearning, describes his experience in Australia’s first ex-gay program.
8) “Please remember, especially in these times of group-think and the right-on chorus, that no person is your friend (or kin) who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow and be perceived as fully blossomed as you were intended.”
–Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, has been Walker has been writing about injustice for decades. She’s a bisexual woman of color who has been vital to the civil rights movement.
9) “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, director, author, and activist. He is best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu in the television series Star Trek. In November of 2017, Takei was accused of sexual assault but his accuser recently admitted that Takei may not have drugged and assaulted him after all.
10) “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.”
–Senator Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay U.S. senator when she won the senate seat from Wisconsin.
11) “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, a transgender man, is an advocate, writer, musician and actor. He is also the son of the iconic duo Sonny Bono and Cher.
12) “Everybody’s journey is individual. You don’t know with whom you’re going to fall in love. … 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, a gay man of color, was an American novelist and social critic.
13) “Do we have to know who’s gay and who’s straight? Can’t we just love everybody and judge them by the car they drive?”
-Ellen DeGeneres, a comedian, actress and successful talk show host, came out as a lesbian in 1997. Also during this time, her character “Ellen” came out as well. This made DeGeneres the first openly lesbian actress to play an openly lesbian character on television.
14) “Where my evolution took place was not in my attitude toward same-sex couples, it was in understanding the pain and the sense of stigma that was being placed on same-sex couples who are friends of mine, where they’d say, “You know what, if you’re not calling it marriage, it doesn’t feel like the same thing.”
–Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States of America.
15) “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, award winning actor best known for his role as Gandalf in Lord of the Rings and Magneto in X-men. McKellen is an openly gay man.
16) “It’s been a journey and a process of becoming totally out and sort of living that truth and having it be a daily thing. I’m at the point now that I want people to know that, and I want to talk about it. We’re coming so far as a society, but we still have so far to go. So until we’re all the way there, I’ll probably die talking about it.”
–Megan Rapinoe, professional soccer player and gay rights activist. In 2012, prior to the Olympics, Rapinoe came out as a lesbian. (She’s currently dating WNBA star Sue Bird)
17) “The pressures on gay teens can be overwhelming–to keep secrets, tell lies, deny who you are, and try to be who you’re not. Remember: you are special and worth being cared about, loved, and accepted just as you are. Never, ever let anyone convince you otherwise.”
Alex Sanchez, gay author who writes queer themed novels for teens.
18) “You can argue that it’s a different world now than the one when Matthew Shepard was killed, but there is a subtle difference between tolerance and acceptance. It’s the distance between moving into the cul-de-sac and having your next door neighbor trust you to keep an eye on her preschool daughter for a few minutes while she runs out to the post office. It’s the chasm between being invited to a colleague’s wedding with your same-sex partner and being able to slow-dance without the other guests whispering.”
–Jodi Picoult, award-winning author. Her son Kyle is gay and she wrote the lesbian romance book “Sing You Home” to support him and other LGBTQ youth.
19) “We are all assigned a gender at birth. Sometimes that assignment doesn’t match our inner truth, and there needs to be a new place — a place for self-identification. I was not born a boy, I was assigned boy at birth. Understanding the difference between the two is crucial to our culture and society moving forward in in the way we treat – and talk about – transgender individuals … In today’s globally connected and ever-diversifying world, culture is now more fluid and more flexible than ever — and so too should be our understanding and perception of gender.”
–Geena Rocero is a transgender rights advocate, model and TED speaker. In 2014, Rocero came out as a transgender woman.
20) Gay people don’t actually try to convert people. That’s Jehovah’s Witnesses you’re thinking of.”
–Tina Fey, actor, writer, comedian and all around perfect human being.
21) “If Harry Potter taught us anything it’s that no one should live in a closet.”
–J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series. Rowling made headlines in 2007 when she announced that Dumbledore, the books wisest and most powerful wizard, was a gay man.
While this post definitely encourages coming out and living authentically, it’s VERY important to realize that you must come out in your own time. Do not let anyone pressure you into coming out if you’re 1) in an unsafe situation 2) are not prepared for the consequences or 3) simply aren’t ready to admit it. There is no shame in being closeted and please don’t feel like any less apart of this community. We see you, you are wonderful and valid <3
In summary,
Beautiful post as always! Your last comment made me tear up. Thank you
Thanks so much, love!