Dee Rees Quotes

I'm not even sure I want to use the term 'coming out.'

After coming out as gay, I soon felt a lot more comfortable in my life, moment to moment.

I could always escape into this demi-monde of homosexuality, which I feel really indebted to. It stopped me being a 'mummy's boy.'

I felt so much pressure to come out on other people's terms, you know? I should have come out.

The difference between being in the closet and out of the closet as a gay man is such a huge shift. I feel so connected still to that 22-year-old, but the idea that I was not open with that part of my life - which I am now so open about - is sort of surreal.

I didn't quite fit in in any particular, specific way. I was a gay teenager who was into drama.

I kinda always felt like I am out, for all intents and purposes. So I always came from the standpoint of, 'Why does writing it in an article or saying it in an article make me gay?' That doesn't make me gay or not. I'm living my life. I'm not lying; I don't hide it.

I was conveniently bisexual for a long time, and then I went, 'Come on, who am I kidding?' And I have to say, it was the single biggest step I took toward emotional well-being, to stop feeling like I had to hide who I am.

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

As a child, recognizing my difference from other kids, I went to the local public library to try to better understand my reality. Back then, many library card catalogues didn't even list 'homosexuality' as a topic.

I came out of the closet very young, and I had to cut my teeth pretty fast.

I think one's sexuality can be the center of life, and coming out and discovering your sexuality is something that really can define your existence.

It's a wonderful side effect of what we're doing, to give someone the strength to come out of the closet to their family, or simply present themselves aesthetically in a way they feel happy with, whether or not their friends are going to be allowed to like them anymore.

This story's gonna grab people. It's about this guy, he's crazy about this girl, but he likes to wear dresses. Should he tell her? Should he not tell her? He's torn, Georgie. This is drama.

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 feel very fortunate that while I had a little bit of personal panic or maybe a little internal struggle as a teenager, really coming to terms with the fact that I was gay, and also knowing I was going to have to tell my family. And, how was that going to affect things? And would it affect things? And ultimately, it did not.

Someone said to me a long time ago, 'You're a drag queen,' and at the time I was a little like... hello? But then I realized over the years that I actually am.

For the sexuality thing, I really feel like the reason I speak so blunt about it is because I held it in for so long. I never told my mom. I never told my family. I kept it to myself. Now, I'm happy with who I am. Either you accept it, or you don't. There's a lot of rappers out there that's like that, but no one's stepping up.

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.

I could have hidden in Boston and lived at home for three years, gone through my transition, taken voice lessons to make my voice more feminine, gotten gender reassignment surgery, and spent time to complete my transition, but I didn't want to wait. I wanted to be in the world.

I'm gay. Megan's my girlfriend... These aren't secrets to people who know me. I don't feel like I've not lived my life. I think people have this assumption that if you're not talking about it, you must be hiding it, like it's this secret. That was never the case for me.

I remember when I told my mom that I wanted to come out, and my mom was a little hesitant. She was saying, 'Are you sure? Do you think that might affect your scores?' or, 'Is it something that you think that you need to do?' And I told her, 'I don't care. It's important to me.'

What I didn't tell her was that I distinctly remember walking out of my junior year English class reading, 'Amandla Stenberg comes out as queer.' She unknowingly set a precedent in my life, a gold standard of how to be proud and exist in the intersectionality of multiple identities that were one thought of as being conflicting.

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.

My name is Charlie Murphy. I was born into this name, and I've been rolling how I've been rolling my whole life.