Janis Ian Quotes

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

The value of tolerance is central to living in today's world - especially in diverse places like the Bronx.

I've driven all through America and I know there are a lot of clever people between the coasts. But they have a slightly old-fashioned view of the world. Whereas New York is one of the most multicultural, multiracial, tolerant places on Earth.

AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals; it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals

Some day an Italian and a Jew will be mayors of New York, and the Italian will come first.

Today, I don't think anyone would think that a mixed-race couple looks odd; I think it's considered perfectly normal. In a very short time frame, the country has changed so much, and for the better. Britain has become, I think, the most tolerant and open-minded country in the world.

There are a lot of BeBe Zahara Benets in Africa. It's important that our continent can move forward, and respect diversity.

I usually get so warned when I go to Detroit, like, 'Oh my God, don't go to this section, don't go to that section.' I've never had any issues in Detroit. I love that there's enough of a racial mix of people to make fun of. I've always had a good time there.

A multi-racial team with a black captain means a lot to the country. There will always be negative political parties in South Africa, but hopefully it's something to take forwards.

I think we're at a really rich and fertile time in the zeitgeist about paying attention to diversity of all kinds - racial diversity, gender diversity, making room for a continuum that is more inclusive.

For me this is the vital litmus test: no intellectual society can flourish where a Jew feels even slightly uneasy.

Part of what makes me most optimistic is if you look at the attitudes of young people. Across the board, young people are much more comfortable with respecting differences. They are much more comfortable with diversity.

I was on a panel with light skinned Blacks and a famous gay science fiction writer, who were complaining about how Blacks are against gays and light skinned Blacks and how intolerant Blacks are of different groups. My position was that Blacks were among the most humanistic, tolerant groups in the country and that across the street from my house in Oakland was one inhabited by White gays.

People are becoming more intimately acquainted with people who are different than them - it's not so unusual anymore.

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.

There is room for everyone; there is room for every culture, race, language and point of view.

Gays are the best, though - we just did Gay Pride in Long Beach and in Tampa. And they're the best audience. They're so enthusiastic. They come dressed up - it's really fun. They're crazy and I love them. They're sweet as can be. Even my macho husband, he has a great time, too. He's so cool, he doesn't care. He loves them.

Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without.

The people of America are red, white, black, yellow, and all the shades in between. Their eyes are blue, black, and brown, and all the shades in between. Their hair is straight, curly, kinky, and most of it in between. They are tall and short, slim and fat, athletic and anaemic, and most of them in between. They are the different peoples of the world becoming more and more the "in between." They are a people creating a new bridge of mankind in between the past of narrow nationalistic chauvinism and the horizon of a new mankind--a people of the world. Their face is the face of the future.

What people do in their own homes is their business, and you can choose to love whoever you love. That's their business. It's no different than discriminating against blacks. It's discrimination, plain and simple.

I am neither Jew nor Gentile, Mahomedan nor Theist; I am but a member of the human family.

To suppress minority thinking and minority expression would tend to freeze society and prevent progress. Now more than ever we must keep in the forefront of our minds the fact that whenever we take away the liberties of those we hate, we are opening the way to loss of liberty for those we love.

Roman Catholics don't like when their religion is mocked. Christians don't like it. Jews don't like it. But this is what it takes to live in a pluralistic society. You have the right to offend and be offended.

I was raised in a household where being gay was like, the most normal thing. My brother is gay, all of my best friends are gay. When my brother came out of the closet, it wasn't a big deal for my family.

I'm not really a political-type person, meaning that I don't really make great stands or whatever, but if you ask me a direct question I say it shouldn't matter who you are, whether you're black, white, green, gay, male, female. If you can do a job and do it well you should be paid for it, you should be respected for it, and you have to be responsible. I think sometimes people can go too fare trying to make a point. I think they should just make their point and go on about.