Identity Expression Quotes

To imagine myself in different ways comes from my beginnings in the theatre. People are more accepting when you go 'apparently', 'wildly' afield from who you are or where you were brought up.

I was in a band with a boy who was quite androgynous and a bit bisexual, and we used to play up to that a little bit to be provocative in a theatrical way, but I guess you either are or aren't.

Being 'out and proud' can feel like a real luxury of Western culture, where people are often white and see existing white gay people in their culture. That's a kind of privilege people don't know they possess.

Conservatism is all about surfaces and labels and presentation, and drag says no, we refuse to follow any rules about that.

I don't like labels, but if you have to put a label on it, I'm a gay man.

There are so many people in the closet, and we are giving them an opportunity to come out of the closet and just admit they like to smoke.

I've always been interested in clothing because it's an extension of how we feel.

We need folks who are queer or trans, to have an opportunity to tell their story.

I believe one can live many lives through personal style. Every day is an occasion to reinvent yourself

The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity.

I had a phase where I had a mustache. There was several times where I had a mustache. I had a mustache in high school because South Asian men can potentially have a great deal of facial hair. So I had a mustache at 14, and then I grew a proper mustache a few years ago. I just thought it would be fun to just have a mustache.

There may be people who try to imitate art when they get dressed and people who just get dressed to cover themselves up, but I guess that both send out messages and communicate their ideas and feelings through their looks.

An important part of the Internet is that it provides a space for people whose identities are socially unacceptable. If it enables someone who feels minoritised to be who they want to be, it's actually worth having other people be offensive. I'd much rather have both than have neither.

I think men spend so much time passing for being men. There's a sense among many writers of color that the most invisible figure that was sitting between all of us was the nerd. But it was the thing we weren't saying, that people were afraid to say, like, "Yo, what we do is nerdy by definition."

I am basically a shy person, so performing sometimes helps me focus - having all those people concentrate their attention on you. I don't see it so much as becoming another person onstage; it's more exploring a different side of your personality.

Everybody brings their thing to their criticism. I bring this wealth of opinions and feeling and knowledge about race and gender and sexuality. I feel like I have it, I may as well express it, and if it's applicable to what I'm writing about and I'm not forcing it, I should try to use it, because it's interesting. It speaks to more than some people.

I don't think that I have been treated kindly or fairly by a certain portion of the gay community. Most of the rest don't know what to make of me. On the occasions that I have had the opportunity to present myself to the community, I have gotten a positive response.

I don't buy into the idea that an Irish writer should write about Ireland, or a gay writer should write about being gay. But when I found the right story, I saw it as an opportunity to write about being a teenager and being gay. Most people, whether you're gay or straight or whatever, have experienced that relationship where one person is much more interested than the other.

I've never given myself a nickname.

A lot of people told me I should be quiet about being bisexual and not say anything, but for me this is a part of my identity.

I'm one of those people who thinks that changing one's hair is the only part of the body that you can change at will.

I wanted to be one of the voices in the box.

I have dark blonde hair - and it needs help. I went darker, when I was 18, in one of those 'I'm 18, and I can do what I want' moments. It's been that way ever since.

When I think of the Blanc & Eclare girl, I think of me.

Flags say something. You put a rainbow flag on your windshield, and you're saying something.