Billie Jean King Quotes

I was terrified about people knowing I was gay. I'd cringe inside at the idea that they'd be talking behind my back.

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.

I don't think closeted homosexual morticians have the market cornered on self-loathing or sense of shame.

I don't believe that if I came out as bisexual the world will change. But it's really important for people to be truthful about who they are and fight for equality. We need to help the world usher itself into the next phase.

Some women can't say the word lesbian... even when their mouth is full of one.

Before I came out, the thought of someone calling me gay, even when I knew very well that I was, was petrifying.

I spent 24 years in the closet wanting to talk so desperately about who I was and what I am but too afraid to.

When I came out, I thought coming out meant giving up a marriage and a family. That was, to me, the most difficult part of the coming-out process.

Gay people in general, I think, like telling secrets because we have to hide a huge secret for the first half of our lives. Why would we want to keep any more?

I had a lot of fear about coming out as a kid.

Competitors, even friends that would say things that were so homophobic, and - I don't think that they realized necessarily the impact that it was having on me, because I was in the closet, and I think that that's what made me really scared to come out.

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.

Honestly, if the worst these people can say about me is that I'm gay, then I think I'll be fine. I can handle it.

In the earliest years of the AIDS crisis, there were many gay men who were unable to come out about the fact that their lovers were ill, A, and then dead, B. They were unable to get access to the hospital to see their lover, unable to call their parents and say, 'I have just lost the love of my life.'

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.

I didn't choose the fact that I was gay, but I did choose whether to live my life as a gay woman-that was the terrifying thing for me. Especially being a gay actress.

Trying to conceal the fact that I was a gay, effeminate, hyperactive, adopted child with a serious lisp in southern Louisiana would have been like trying to hide Dolly Parton in a string bikini!

I don't feel closeted.

Compared to being caught in the wrong body, being plagued by 'dysmorphic OCD thoughts,' being gay is commonplace and mostly accepted. What once seemed unimaginable and shameful has been revealed to be perfectly normal.

I've been openly gay since I can remember.

I'm the only gay person my parents know.

I'm not saying that being gay is what defines me, but at the same time, if you feel like you have to hide it, then it becomes what defines you. You keep it hidden, and the secret becomes you.

The moment to tell my barber I was gay just never came up.

I would certainly never suggest that any lesbian should be ashamed of her sexual preference.

If I was gay, why would I hide it?