Dee Rees Quotes

My mother thought me being gay was a death sentence.

My mother and father could not handle even me being gay. We never talked about it, really.

I've always had tremendous support from my parents. I think there's a myth that gay people have lousy relationships with their parents. Maybe there are logical reasons for a gay person not to have a great relationship with their parents - not because there's a parent who made him gay, but just because it may be difficult to understand everything.

Maybe there are logical reasons for a gay person not to have a great relationship with their parents - not because there's a parent who made him gay, but just because it may be difficult to understand everything.

I came out to my mom at the age of 14. She didn't understand it at first, but she's been very supportive since.

I was kicked out of my own house and had my own drag mother, you know, a house mother. Things with my family are great now - my mom and dad were at the premiere - but they had kicked me out.

My mom died before she knew I was gay, and my dad thought it was a phase, then realized it wasn't.

When I first came out, holidays were hard. I reached a point where I didn't go home anymore. I constructed my own, kind of like, family group around Christmas.

My mom will never march in a gay pride parade with a big sign. She is very private. She lives in Chattanooga. She tries so hard to understand me and my life. But she said to me once, "Leslie, if I live to be 105 I'll never understand this need you have to air your dirty laundry. Why can't you just whisper it to a therapist?!" She doesn't understand.

Judy Garland's father was gay. That seems to be the consensus. They left Minnesota and went to California because he got caught with some boy backstage.

I think as far as I've been able to understand from my friends that I went to college with and things like that is that it almost seems like Russian Roulette when you're coming out of the closet to your parents.

There are still times in my life where I pull back from being totally honest, and I can't imagine a single straight person who would understand that.

In 'Laurence Anyways,' Nathalie Baye is Laurence's mother, and she is quite an awful mother. Still, she is the only one in the end who truly accepts her daughter.

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

It would be nice if I did have a good relationship with my family, and yes, part of me longs to have a mum and dad who love and accept me for who I am. But if they never do, it's OK.

I'm the only gay person my parents know.

I think younger players probably just think they are who they are-they don't think about coming out. Unless you're number one in the world, nobody cares, usually.

How can my son not be straight after all I've said and done for him?

I don't know what would have been worse: If Mira had come home one day to say she was gay or an actress.

I have friends who are black whose families opened their arms to them when they came out; I have friends who were white where they were rejected.

In the past, kids didn't tell their parents they were gay, so there were never the bust-ups. Some parents react so strongly to the news that their children are gay that the reaction is, 'Get out of our house.' There's a residue of old prejudices that are going to die hard.

Remember that I was out of the closet at the age of sixteen. My parents knew I was gay; I'd had to tell them.

I don't know, maybe my sons will be gay.

I used to shake my head when I heard about mothers who were shocked - shocked! - when their kids came out. I didn't understand how they had missed seeing something so essential when looking at their children. But too many parents see only what they want to see, and that's true whether our kids are gay or straight.

Latino kids are not rejected by their parents for being Latino, nor are most Muslims disowned by their parents for being Muslims, but those who are gay are often the target of their families' disapprobation or outright hostility.