Rachel Maddow Quotes

I'm proud of my sexuality. I embrace it. It's just another part of me.

My sexuality is not a phase. I am who I am.

Who am I to judge a gay person?

It takes some intelligence and insight to figure out you're gay and then a tremendous amount of balls to live it and live it proudly.

Everyone—whether straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender—should be allowed to show their true colors, and be accepted and loved for who they are.

Being gay doesn't mean that you are less than anybody else. It's just who you are.

To hang out in a gay bar or put on a sequined halter top makes me feel like a total person.

Honestly, I never needed a mask to go onstage. It was me who was there, and it was always what I felt, based on what I had learned at home, in my religion, and from society. I clung to that: 'This is me, it has to be me.' And if I had an encounter with someone of the same sex, I looked away.

I put myself on the line with my truth and my sexuality. That is my choice. My choice.

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.

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

Some people are both genders. I think you just come out the way you come out, and you have to embrace it honestly.

I'm still me, no matter if I'm gay or straight or whatever.

'If Our Love Is Wrong' is, quite simply, my coming out song, as I was trying to wrap my head around my sexuality and was starting to learn about songwriting, and that my honesty and my authenticity came from my personal experiences and writing about stuff that genuinely bugged me or upset me.

Some people have their sexuality really at the forefront of who they are, and I applaud those people.

Some people say, 'If she's so real, why does she call herself with a made-up name?' Well, India is my real name. Or they say, 'If she's so real, why does she wear makeup?' I didn't know there was anything wrong with makeup.

Pride became this dogma which meant you couldn't criticize anything gay - if you were the least bit critical of gay culture or people or any gay person doing any gay thing, that was an insufficient display of pride. You were suffering from internalized homophobia. As opposed to external homophobia.

I think there are [gay players] right now, and if they're looking for a window to just come out, I mean, now is the window. My view on it is, yes, I am a Christian, but to each his own. You do what you want to do.

Sexuality shouldn't define you. It should be part of who you are.

Everybody is original, if he tells the truth, if he speaks from himself. But it must be from his *true* self and not from the self he thinks he *should* be.

I hope the fact that I'm gay isn't the most interesting part of me.

I used to have to downplay my sexuality because I wanted to be taken so seriously as a thespian and as an artist and as an actor, so I'd play crack heads and down trotting women and disguise myself, and I think as I've gotten older, I become more comfortable with who I really am and all parts of me knowing that my physical self doesn't diminish me in any way or my talent.

Am I proud of being straight? No. You know why? Because if I start acting proud, that's going to make me seem kind of gay.

I hope being gay isn't the most interesting thing about me.

Everybody wants to be fancy and new. Nobody wants to be themselves. I mean, maybe people want to be themselves, but they want to be different, with different clothes or shorter hair or less fat. It's a fact. If there was a guy who just liked being himself and didn't want to be anybody else, that guy would be the most different guy in the world and everybody would want to be him.