Richard DeVos Quotes

I was a gay man living in the epicenter of 20th-century America's worst health epidemic.

AIDS had won gays sympathy; they no longer seemed the privileged brats that the general populace had resented in the 1970s.

We didn't exist. Ronald Reagan didn't say the word 'AIDS' until 1987. I've tried desperately to get a meeting in the White House; Gay Men's Health Crisis is already an established organization. I have a certain presence.

The gay male is always going to be at the bottom.

What was interesting was talking to older gay men about what it was like being gay in the Eighties.

People don't think the struggles gay people have are worth talking about because everyone's decided that we're all equals now. Those struggles are much more subtle now. But the weight of being different does carry on.

When the AIDS epidemic first started there were people who said, "Well, if there weren't gays, then we wouldn't have this problem. It's got to be because of them - let it be them instead of us." But when you educate yourself about it, you can't help but realize that we're all affected by it. I think that things like that just become too daunting for people.

Both casual, unthinking discrimination and deliberate, malicious homophobia erode self-confidence and undermine mental health. Both are far too common, not just in our schoolyards or online but in sporting clubs, in the outer and even in our national parliament.

When I was a teenager, the biggest heartthrob was Tab Hunter. He was in every movie out of Warner Bros. until he was exposed as gay, and his career faded. That was an object lesson. I knew I must protect my sexual orientation.

I had a lot of friends for a long time who were gay, and I didn't even realize it for awhile. Even in my mid- to late 20s, I was still pretty naive about it.

If I had come out during my acting career in the 1950s, I would not have had a career.

Some people in the industry warned me that I'd ruin my career, miss out on possible jobs, and potentially put my life in danger if I ever came out.

There are still parts of the country where it's hard: when you realize you're gay, it's like a death sentence.

Young, gay and stuck in Arkansas? Sounds like a horror flick.

If it was up to me, I would send the gay community, who insisted on celebrating in Jerusalem, to Sodom and Gomorrah.

A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing to protect traditional marriages.

I've always felt I've related to women deeply because of being gay and feeling like there was always somebody trying to oppress me, to keep me down, to put me in my place.

I'm a gay man, living an out life for a long time, and it's tiring and anger-making to hear people continue to spit out the same old dreary cliches about the fact that gay men are doing something unnatural, and there'll be a price to pay when the Rapture happens.

If there are countries that discriminate against the gay community, they are the countries that I will not spend my own personal money. I will go for work there, but I will not spend my own money there. Why would I?

We have the luxury in the West of being able to say, 'Yeah, absolutely, we're progressive, we've moved forward with the gay community.' We haven't in a lot of other countries. My people from Pakistan - I know we haven't moved forward.

For a long time trans people have always been a joke. Our reputation has always been the bottom of the barrel and it's not fair.

If somebody is saying that I should not compete because I'm a man, I don't know what to say to that. And if somebody is saying that I had it easy, I would invite them to join the military and enter Indiana politics in 2010 as a gay person. See how easy they find it.

Racism is a problem everywhere, especially in this country, but all over the world, and especially within queer space.

For many gay and bisexual men of color, economic inequalities add to the pernicious effects of oppression and homophobia.

Southern black gay and bi men are suffering from a self-esteem issue.