Sonya Deville Quotes

I guess I think of myself as an actor before I think of myself as a gay actor.

It doesn't annoy me but I think of myself as a presenter who is gay, rather than a gay presenter. It's a subtle distinction, but that's how I view it.

I would say I'm pretty well at ease with my sexuality, but I'm an individual before I am a female.

I feel like I've been observed as an individual more than a gay person, or as a filmmaker with a certain point of view rather than a lesbian filmmaker with a gay point of view.

You just wish sometimes that people would treat you like a human being rather than seeing your gender first and who you are second.

Everyone always says, 'When you look at a boy band, one of them has to be gay.' No, they don't.

I am a writer who happens to love women. I am not a lesbian who happens to write.

I hate the word lesbian; it tells you nothing; its only purpose is to inflame.

I did not want to be the gay artist, and I talked to my manager all the time, like, I don't want to lead with that. I didn't want people to look at me like that's all I am.

We live in a society that wants to label you with a color, sexuality, religion, or ethnicity. It divides us, but it also allows us to find pride in our identity.

If you're good at what you do, it's going to quiet the people that think you're not good because of how you look or what sex you are.

I've never been more aware of my Asianness and femaleness than working in Hollywood.

A straight person doesn't have to go in the media and tell them that they're straight, and I don't think a gay person should do that, neither. But that's the society we have to live in.

I've always been conscious not to take advantage of my sexual orientation because I don't think it's fair, and it shouldn't matter.

You could say I don't want for me be seen primarily as a gay writer. I've never hidden my sexuality. It matters that I'm gay, it matters that I'm white, it matters that I'm male, it matters that I'm American. But basically it's just less and less of a big deal.

When are we going to stop labeling everyone? How many times have I been referred to as 'out gay actor?' Do we say, 'out heterosexual actor' when we refer to Tom Hanks?

Being the person I am, you know, the size I am, being a woman, being a black woman, there's not a lot of roles for us.

The problem is that television executives have got it into their heads that if one presenter on a show is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed heterosexual boy, the other must be a black Muslim lesbian.

I'm very happy to have the heritage that I do, but I'm not wanting to be 'the Latino actor.' I just want to be 'an actor.'

I have a big passion about civil rights for everyone - whoever is being downtrodden at the moment, it doesn't matter: racial discrimination or sexual orientation or gender. Whatever it is, I'm there. I think I was a born civil rights activist. I can't stand the smashing of a community. It's not fair and it's not right.

I was very surprised that for a while I could only get cast as straight. It was that way for a few years.

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.

When I first started, all the media I ever got was, 'Hey! There's this Indian girl. And even though she is Indian, she gets views and stuff.'

For thousands of years, there have been lies about being gay or not being gay. If you know they're lies, you're free.

Labels are for filing. Labels are for clothing. Labels are not for people.