Pete Buttigieg Quotes

Coming out is a means of redefining oneself, of claiming membership in a lifestyle and a social order with distinct values. Chief among these values is honesty.

All I can really say is to encourage anybody who's in the closet to come out, and congratulate anyone who has.

Nowadays, if somebody in America is feeling alone and wants to find a coming out story, they just search 'coming out,' and they'll find millions of first-person examples of people telling their story.

I watched a million coming-out videos, and that was kind of how I accepted it myself.

If one less kid can grow up without hiding who they are along the way or having to believe that who they love is something that will make them lonely, then everything I went through will be worth it.

It means so much to me to see Caitlyn Jenner coming out, just by being her authentic self, staying true to who she is, and just living her life.

Without gay men, I am nothing.

I'm honestly not the kind of person who wants to step up to a podium, test the microphone and be like, 'Hey, I'm homosexual and this is who I am, hear me roar.' That's not who I am.

I watched pretty much every coming out video on YouTube that has ever been posted; I watched it in between 14 and a half and 15. Those coming out videos, and those people on YouTube, those brave, brave, brave people on YouTube, without them, I don't know where I'd be.

I am not gay, but if I were, I would be the first one running out of the closet.

Everybody knew me as a gay man, and in my life in London, I never tried to hide.

Thanks to every gay person in public and non-public life who has come out.

I decided to host a couple of the 'In The Life' programs. And I did that really as a result of meeting a lot of young gay people in the Midwest who really had nothing to relate to. At least I felt this program is presenting them with some options.

Coming out to gays is a way of affirming sanity and self-worth.

Being from New York, if you're gay, you're gay. I think it's important that if you are gay, you not be afraid to say who you are.

I think that anybody coming out and saying, 'This is who I am, and let me show it to you...' is good for the world.

There's kind of a gift in being gay because, if you come out, you're forced to express yourself.

I think the reason why people loved 'Jem' in the '80s was because it kind of gave them this story of a place to fit in. It's about finding your place.

The process of coming out was critical to getting where we are today: coming out to our friends, our family, our co-workers, God forbid, to our clients.

If I had seen 'Pose' in the years I was a kid, it would have probably meant everything to me.

As many of you know, my story begins where most people's in the LGBT+ community begins... with fear. I knew I was different from my peers, my friends, and those around me when I started to discover who I was and who I identified as from a young age.

We absolutely need more role models. I think we need more people to come forward and be proud of who they are.

Coming out, all the way out, is offered more and more as the political solution to our oppression.

The fact that, for so many generations, ordinary, everyday Americans came out of the closet and told their family and friends about who they are has laid the foundation for public sentiment to change. They got comfortable in their own skins to be able to share themselves with family and friends. This is where social change took place.

The moment I realised anyone could be watching - and this is going to sound so name-droppy - was when Ricky Martin reached out to me on Coming Out Day 2012. The Internet has this massive potential, and you can never know the effect you might have on others by just being yourself.