Martina Navratilova Quotes

I filed the first gay rights bill in Massachusetts history in 1972 in the legislature, one of the first in the country.

If I was gay, why wouldn't I admit it? It wouldn't harm me.

I am a gay American.

Someone coming out as gay shouldn't be newsworthy; it shouldn't be warranting a magazine cover or anything like that, which I had as my story for coming out.

Being gay isn't something you choose, but you do face choices about whether and how to discuss it.

I, personally, am trying to get more and more involved with the gay and lesbian movement, very much so.

Just because I'm in favor of gay rights doesn't mean that I'm gay or doesn't mean I'm some kind of 'sissy' or something. That's the language that you hear in locker rooms.

Certainly our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters need to be supported in living out their call to holiness.

If somebody walks in to me and says, 'I'm a gay person, I want a job in your office,' I would say that's inappropriate, and they wouldn't be hired because that would mean they are promoting their agenda.

I now realize that I am a gay man before anything else. Other gays may think they're a Jew first, or black, or a banker, but I'm gay.

I'm sure other people in the business have considered reasons why they're doing what they're doing, but I do think that if you're gay you have a responsibility to come out.

I'm not a gay rights activist.

Even though I'm from the Midwest, the majority of my life has been spent on the coasts where being gay wasn't really much of a conversation.

That's my advice to all homosexuals, whether they're in the Boy Scouts, or in the Army or in high school: Shut up, don't tell anybody what you do, your life will be a lot easier.

We've got gays working there. If they can demonstrate long-term relationships, we make same-sex benefits available just as we do with common-law marriages. Gays are productive people. Some fly airplanes, some work in breweries.

But it's amazing how many people think that gay men should slink off into the shadows when it comes to having friendships with children.

It's none of our business, the sexual preference of people. So, I hope if someone's thinking about it, that if they do come out as gay and are a professional football player, and it makes them happy, and it makes their life easier, then I think they should do it.

I've had so many interviews where the last question is, Are you gay? I had to find very creative ways to say that I was gay, but that I wasn't going to talk about it.

If I was gay, why would I hide it?

Throughout my years of public service, I've listened to the voices of the gay and lesbian community, whether through whispered confidences or public declarations. I understand what it truly means to say that all people should be treated equally, and I'll always stand up for fair and equal treatment of gay and lesbian Americans.

There are millions of gay people in the United States, including well-known celebrities.

I wouldn't want to lose out on my macho action movie just because I told people I was queer.

Thanks to every gay person in public and non-public life who has come out.

Americans don't want cowboys to be gay.

I'm gay, and I was born this way.