Adepero Oduye Quotes

I have a gay cousin who came out to my parents before he came out to his own. So I benefited from having a very open, supportive family, and I want to pass that on.

I do have a lot of gays in my family now, but some will never come out.

When I was in high school I got involved in the fringe theater scene in Chicago, and I met some openly gay people. I could see that it got better, that they were happy and loved and supported. I saw with my own eyes that it got better.

The more gays and lesbians come out - the more people realize that they have a friend who's gay, which they may not have known before, and they realize this person has the same aspirations and desires and need to be committed and to be part of a community - then they become more accepting.

I was surprised how supportive my family and friends were in my coming out, and it gave and still gives me hope.

I can't tell you at DragCon how many families that waited in line to see me. Some of them waited up to five hours, and they had their family there. That's the beauty of this. I remember being that little gay boy in Mesquite that was so afraid of the world, like, 'Am I living right? Am I living wrong?'

I'm not homophobic or anything like that, but when gay people come out, it's like, 'You didn't have to tell me that, because I'm still going to still give you a hug.'

We need more gay in the world! I really believe that.

I'm trying to tell kids if they are gay, it's OK to be gay. I've tried to tell families if they have a gay family member to accept them and love them as they always have.

I have so many gay friends that I love.

If my kid came to me and said 'I'm gay,' I'd say, 'Son, I love you.'

I respect every gay man and woman. They're that way, and they just want to be happy.

I'm in my mid-40s now, and I came out in 11th grade, so I must have been 17. So that's quite a long time ago, and the temperature and the culture was different.

God did not create gays and lesbians so He could have something to hate!

I'm the only gay person my parents know.

Nowadays, if somebody in America is feeling alone and wants to find a coming out story, they just search 'coming out,' and they'll find millions of first-person examples of people telling their story.

I grew up in a pretty gay world - my brother's gay and he's been married to a man for 20 years, which is like 60 in straight-people years.

My gay audience has been with me from the beginning.

I think that there's no doubt that as I see friends, families, children of gay couples who are thriving, you know, that has an impact on how I think about these issues.

Gays are some of the nicest, kindest, most loving people in the world.

Growing up, one of my cousins was an out gay man.

It's an experience I'd like to add to the chorus, that these blue-collar, macho men, like my older brother, had the capacity to say: 'I don't care, I love you anyway.' There are young kids thinking: 'I'll never come out because it's too hard in our communities.' But I'm saying maybe your story can be similar to mine.

Coming out involves varying degrees of difficulty that are affected by class, race, religion, and geography.

I'm always thrilled when I get feedback from young people, particularly from 'The New Normal,' young gay people - when they say they want that when they grow up, that means a lot to me.

I have quite a few gay couples and gay couples with children in my life.