Nafessa Williams Quotes

When you're a young kid and you're gay, you're out there on your own. And you're trying to figure this thing out. And your parents typically aren't gay.

I've been bisexual for as long as I can remember. I remember being made fun of in junior high for that. It was something that was shameful, and it really shouldn't be.

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

The gay thing has always been hard for me.

I knew that I was different when I was six years old, but it wasn't until I got to about 10 or 11 that I realised I was a gay man.

I knew I was gay since, like, fifth grade.

Our intention is to really explore this transition and, beyond that, explore the particular things that someone comes up against when they're gay or lesbian.

I'm the only gay person my parents know.

I wanted so badly to be straight like my friends. But I couldn't change it any more than I could change having brown eyes. And I knew I would never fit into what kids thought was normal.

I've got lots of problems. Being gay isn't one of them.

When I was young, people were so disgusted by me. Before I even knew that I was gay... everybody else had it figured out and, you know, they were letting you know.

Being gay, you're kind of forced to ask, I suppose, very existential questions from a very, very early age. Your identity becomes so important to you because you're trying to understand it, and, I think, from the age of, like, 9, you're being forced to ask questions... that other kids maybe don't have to ask.

I actually remember being in 3rd grade and piecing together in my head that one of my guy friends was homosexual.

For me, as a kid, I always felt like being gay was something that was going make people turn on me.

The gay community just recognizes what their closets are and we straight have to spend years trying to figure out which closet we are trapped in.

I can't speak for other people, but for me, I feel like gone are the days that you need to come out of a closet. I never felt like I was in a closet. I never did. I always felt comfortable with who I am and the decisions I made.

People who were close to me - family and friends - they knew about my sexuality.

Very few people have the guts to come up to you and say, 'Hey, are you gay?'

I was raised thinking I'd burn in hell for being gay, but I didn't have a choice. It's just who I am.

I graduated from high school in '62 and I didn't know any people who were gay. I'm sure there were people, but I didn't know any. For years and years, I guess, I was very uptight about being a gay actor. I thought it would make me less hirable.

I have a friend who is around my age, a little younger, and she's gay and came out to her own community when she was younger but not to her family and to the community at large.

As anyone who is gay will confirm, being that way is not something you become, it is a set of emotional and physical responses that just are.

I am gay, and I'm very comfortable with it.

Growing up in Fife, you were aware that there were these creatures called lesbians, but it was in the realms of complete freakishness. And I didn't feel like a freak.

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