Queer Experience Quotes

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

I was off to Yale to be a lesbian

A lot of artists I like end up being queer. Or maybe it's a subconscious thing that you can identify of, like, 'Oh this person understands the nuances of the romantic narrative of a queer person, or the social narrative of a queer person.' And then you discover, lo and behold that they are a queer person.

I grew up when one of America's greatest black playwrights, August Wilson, was writing about life in Pittsburgh, but I never saw myself in any of his straight-male plays. And then I see 'Angels,' which was so honest and painful, and it had this black drag queen in it, Belize, with a big heart. I finally had a character to relate to.

Just like my straight friends, I am repeatedly asked when I plan to have kids, and have been told many times, by various branches of my bloodline, that 'even lesbians can have babies these days.'

I think a lot of what I've done is about people feeling as if they are part of the world but also not part of it at the same time. I don't know whether that's from being a gay kid, but I definitely think that resonates with me.

I realized I was gay when I was a teenager and I couldn't imagine what it meant to be a gay adult. I just did the next thing that seemed right, and that led me from activism to media to the kind of media I'm in now. But I like where I've ended up.

It's important for me to talk about my life as a gay man, not gay themes per se, in my work.

I live in a kind of gay bubble. I live in a gay house, I drive a gay car. I eat gay food.

When you're young and queer and closeted, you can end up in this place where you regard your straight peers as the enemy.

I am invisible in gay bars.

As a person who doesn't identify as straight, any love song I write is contextualized by a queer identity.

I'm, like, a person who likes love. And I can find love in any type of person. I've dated girls, and I've liked girls. But they're usually straight girls, so it never works out. I mean, I'm not that gay, so I don't have the energy to convince someone else to be gay, you know?

I think that when you're queer, you grow up with these kinds of men who might have made you feel small because of who you are. They could be part of your family, or somebody on the street, or a teacher.

I'm a shy person whose very presence has become a confrontation. I think that's true of a lot of queer people.

We are traumatized by growing up in a world that doesn't really accept us. Obviously, we've made great leaps and bounds, but I think there's a tendency to force a narrative onto queer people that once you come out... you have to be really happy and really successful and proud all the time.

When I moved to New York, I was still in the closet.