Mika Quotes

When I was 5, I wore a tie, and I wanted to change my name to Larry, which probably tipped my parents off that I was gay.

When you're young and queer and closeted, you can end up in this place where you regard your straight peers as the enemy.

Discovering I'm gay just sort of happened much later in life.

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 didn't know what gay was. There was no such thing when I was growing up. I knew I had crushes on boys, but I didn't think there was anything wrong with that until I started to hear about it from the other kids in school.

I didn't have any role models. I really thought I was doomed to this loveless, lonely life. I didn't know any gay people until I began doing theater.

I think I was probably looking for gay role models when I was younger, before I even knew or thought I was gay. I didn't really make the connection that they were gay, but I felt drawn to them because they were going against the grain, and I knew there was something that they had that everybody else didn't have. It was an edge.

I've definitely, you know, been with women. And I've had great relationships with them where I was definitely in love. It's just I grew to a point where deep inside I knew that I could never truly have a relationship with a woman. I don't know if they ever suspected. It was never brought up.

I'm not sure when I first knew that I was gay.

Growing up, one of my cousins was an out gay man.

I've been gay since the day I was born.

I thought about being gay, but it didn't fit.

I was a gay kid who didn't know I was a gay kid, which was really challenging because you think there is something wrong with you until you understand what it is.

I remember being so nervous to tell my little sister. I was like, 'I have something to tell you... I'm gay.' And she was like, 'Cool, do you have a boyfriend?' And I was like, 'Yeah,' and she was like, 'When do I get to meet him?' I was, like, 'Really? It's that simple?' So it went really well.

When I was 13, my mum knew that I was gay, and she just always knew.

I've known I was gay since I was young, I think. And I mean young - like, young - like 5 or 6. I think most gay people or queer people know there's something different about them very early, but I didn't know what to call it.

I knew I was as gay as a goose. Then I ended up in West Hollywood, where the queers hang from the trees. I was home. I had landed.

Everyone's journey as a gay man or woman is different; it's personal.

In high school, I came out to my friends as queer. My entire world opened up; this was a monumental step toward unveiling my truest self. I had my first girlfriend when I was sixteen years old.

Being able to live my life transparently does empower me to feel like I can be myself more. It's easier for me to flirt with girls now that girls know that I'm gay. It almost makes it a sexier encounter than if I was trying to pretend that I was straight.

I think for a long time I wasn't really out to myself growing up in Omaha, Neb., to a Catholic conservative family. It took me a while to come out to myself, and not long after that, I came out to them. I think that it really couldn't have been a better experience. They were all immediately supportive.

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.

My being gay was something of not great interest to me.

It never occurred to me that I needed to say that I was gay. I simply am. Anyone who knows me or who's been around me ten minutes knows it too.

I, Binyavanga Wainaina, quite honestly swear I have known I am a homosexual since I was five.