Alice Dreger Quotes

I've had so many interviews where the last question is, Are you gay? I had to find very creative ways to say that I was gay, but that I wasn't going to talk about it.

The whole principle of coming out is that everyone knows someone who's gay. The minute someone comes out, no one can be a bigot, because someone they love is gay.

Growing up in the Bible Belt of Texas, I thought for sure there was no way - if I'm 100 percent true to myself and come out as a gay, African-American person in 2015 - that people are going to be able to accept that and understand it.

I am the most well-known homosexual in the world.

I had a hell of a time convincing people I was gay - which was so annoying!

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.

But it's amazing how many people think that gay men should slink off into the shadows when it comes to having friendships with children.

There are a lot of myths about gay people.

A lot of straight people think I'm nuts.

It's kind of a shame that it's even an issue. Not being gay, I can't fully appreciate how complicated that is. In the article, the interviewer asked me, and I said that if I were, I would just say it.

If every gay person were to come out only to his/her own family, friends, neighbors and fellow workers, within days the entire state would discover that we are not the stereotypes generally assumed.

Gay rights are not primarily marriage rights, and for the millions who live in unaccepting places with no resources, dignity remains elusive. I am lucky to have forged meaning and built identity, but that's still a rare privilege. And gay people deserve more, collectively, than the crumbs of justice.

When I wrote a gay character, I spent six months asking questions I've never asked a gay friend, the questions you don't ask just because you don't have the right to do it.

Gay men are still men.

I'm a gay man of colour.

For years I was the only publicly out gay person who was not a full-time gay activist: my position as a quasi-foreigner gave me a privileged perch, and my ability to earn money by writing for western publications made me almost impervious to discrimination. Other Russians were not in a hurry to come out.

I am an openly proud gay man.

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

Being gay isn't something you choose, but you do face choices about whether and how to discuss it.

Part of me looks at the gay movement now and worries that we're losing our individuality.

Personally speaking, growing up as a gay man before it was as socially acceptable as it is now, I knew what it was to feel different, to feel alienated and to feel not like everyone else. But the very same thing that made me monstrous to some people also empowered me and made me who I was.

Without gay men, I am nothing.

In the 1980s, there weren't a lot of role models for gay teenagers.

My truth is I am gay and out, and if I can't do that in my music, then I don't need it. Fortunately, I do feel like there is a movement against homophobia, and I hope to be part of that.

I think it's always good for gay people to come out, but it's also understandable why people might choose not to do so.