The Gay Civil Rights Movement
THE GAY RIGHTS MEDIA PAGE, sister site to QueerVisions.com, showcases select LGBT media of the LGBT Civil Rights Movement hand picked from the Gay Rights Media collections on FriendFeed, YouTube, Flickr and more.
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The Gay Civil Rights Movement

 
  1. "In 1996, I voted against the so-called Defense of Marriage Act not just because I believed it was nothing more than a fundamentally political ploy to divide Americans, but because it is unconstitutional. Thirteen years later, I still defy you to find a single Senator who can credibly argue that it is within the Senate’s power to strip away the word or spirit of a constitutional clause by simple statute. DOMA should never have passed and should never have become the law of the land. Unconstitutional and fundamentally unfair, today the human cost is especially clear and compelling. Denying same sex couples the same rights and protections under the law as enjoyed by opposite sex couples has absolutely nothing to do with defending marriage. This lawsuit [by the state of Massachusetts against DOMA] is a necessary step in ensuring everyone in Massachusetts can live their lives and raise their families secure in the knowledge that their commitment to each other doesn’t make them any less an American than their heterosexual families, friends and neighbors." ~John Kerry
  2. "For the gay and lesbian community in this country, I think it's clear that they feel victimized in fairly powerful ways and they're often hurt by not just certain teachings of the Catholic Church, but the Christian faith generally. And as a Christian, I'm constantly wrestling with my faith and my solicitude and regard and concern for gays and lesbians." ~Barack Obama (July 2009, to the Catholic news media)
  3. "The job of the gay community is not to deal with extremists who would castigate us or put us on an island and drop an H-bomb on us. The fact of the matter is that there is a small percentage of people in America who understand the true nature of the homosexual community. There is another small percentage who will never understand us. Our job is not to get those people who dislike us to love us. Nor was our aim in the civil rights movement to get prejudiced white people to love us. Our aim was to try to create the kind of America, legislatively, morally, and psychologically, such that even though some whites continued to hate us, they could not openly manifest that hate. That's our job today: to control the extent to which people can publicly manifest antigay sentiment." ~Bayard Rustin
  4. "The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to.. fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections." ~Judge Robert H. Jackson 1943
  5. "This wedding ring means so much to me. We've been together so long. It represents all the years since we first met. It represents all the family and friends who supported us all those years. It represents all the family and friends we've lost together. It represents the future that we don't know what it's going to be but we know we're going to face it together until, as they say, death do us part." ~David Hyde Pierce (married on October 28, 2008 to Brian Hargrove)
  6. "The only queer people are those who don't love anybody." ~Rita Mae Brown
  7. “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” ~Flannery O'Connor (American writer 1925-1964)
  8. "Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself." ~Harvey Fierstein
  9. "I'm a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being... by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant." ~Paul Newman
  10. "You could move." ~Abigail Van Buren, "Dear Abby," (in response to a reader who complained that a gay couple was moving in across the street and wanted to know what he could do to improve the quality of the neighborhood)
  11. "Burst down those closet doors once and for all, and stand up and start to fight." ~Harvey Milk
  12. "When someone asks me, "are gay rights civil rights?" my answer is always, "Of course, they are." Civil rights are positive legal prerogatives: the right to equal treatment before the law. These are the rights shared by everyone. There is no one in the United States who does not, or should not, enjoy or share in enjoying these rights. Gay and lesbian rights are not special rights in any way. It isn't "special" to be free from discrimination. It is an ordinary, universal entitlement of citizenship." ~NAACP National Chairman Julian Bond
  13. "Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood. This sets the stage for further repression and violence that spread all too easily to victimize the next minority group. || We have a lot more work to do in our common struggle against bigotry and discrimination. I say "common struggle" because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination." ~Coretta Scott King
  14. "Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities." ~Ayn Rand
  15. "I was getting letters from kids that almost committed suicide but didn't because of what I did. And I realized that I had a purpose, and it wasn't just about me and it wasn't about celebrity." ~Ellen DeGeneres (giving the commencement speech at Tulane University, May 16, 2009, and reflecting on coming out)
  16. Just because homophobia is more socially acceptable than racism doesn't make it any better. ~TheAmazingAtheist
  17. My feeling about gay people is that we have a responsibility not only to make gay marriage acceptable and to make gays feel accepted as much as heterosexuals...Gay people are downtrodden They are beaten. They are abused for their sexuality, and it goes across race. In the white community and the black community gay people are the bastards of the world. And in order for things to change, because any one of you could have gay children, or gay relatives, or gay friends...we have a responsibility to make this acceptable, to get all this bullshit so that some gay kid going to high school doesn't get the shit beaten out of him just because he's gay...I'm as heterosexual as they come. What is this hang-up about gay marriage? Who cares? Get on with your life! ~Howard Stern
  18. I am not seeking your approval for the way I live. Your approval is not terribly important to me. This is not a request for acceptance. We don't want it, we don't need it from those people. ~Barney Frank (to opponents of Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill)
  19. Where were these leaders of faith when college students of gay and lesbian orientation were beaten and often brutalized for expressing their feelings for each other? ... Why didn't they speak about that at the time when it was the other way around? See what really makes a democracy work is when you speak for others rights even when you disagree with them. I'm saying most of the religious leaders that I hear speaking out now did not do it at the time. Had they done so I think they would have better moral standing to speak at this moment on this legislation even though I disagree with them. ~NY Gov. David Patterson
  20. As marital equality haltingly but inexorably spreads state by state for gay Americans in the years to come, Utah will hardly be in the lead to follow Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa and Vermont. But the fact that it too is taking its first steps down that road is extraordinary. It is justice, not a storm, that is gathering. Only those who have spread the poisons of bigotry and fear have any reason to be afraid. ~Frank Rich
  21. If we didn't do it in 2004, do you think the party would have wanted us to do it in 2006 during the midterm elections to take back Congress? God forbid. 2008? Well, it's another presidential year. And now people are saying 2010? That's another critical year to hold Congress, and we've got statehouses across the nation. 2012? Another presidential year. 2014? Another Congressional year. Wait does almost always mean never. That was Dr. King's point. ~San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom
  22. There were a whole bunch of conservative older men and those guys were talking about gay marriage. They were talking about discussions going on across the country and my daughter Kate, after listening to them for about twenty minutes, said to them, 'You guys don't understand. You've already lost. My generation doesn't care.' I think I learned something from my daughter that day... No, Senator McKinley, I will not co-sponsor a leadership bill with you. ~Sen. Gronstal (on a Bill to Amend Iowa's Constitution to take away Marriage Equality)
  23. "As long as society is anti-gay, then it will seem like being gay is anti-social." ~Joseph Francis
  24. "While many minority groups are the target for prejudice... and discrimination... in our society, few persons face this hostility without the support and acceptance of their family as do many gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth." ~Virginia Uribe and Karen Harbeck
  25. I'm struck by how many Republicans are still wedded to discrimination, even after so much evidence has been assembled revealing it to be counter-productive and based on nothing but prejudice and fear. They are the real culprits here. As for the Democrats, they seem permanently scarred by 1993, unable to move a measure that would help retain skilled service members at a time of great strain and remove a hideous burden from many patriotic Americans serving their country. ~Andrew Sullivan (on Don't Ask Don't Tell)
  26. Stand up for doing the right thing; for being a human being. Put human rights above politics -- because if you don't, you'll regret it for the rest of your political career. Conservatives should note that the first American soldier to 'take a bullet' at the onset of the current war in Iraq was a gay man. ~Howard Dean
  27. Full sexual consciousness and a natural regulation of sexual life mean the end of mystical feelings of any kind. In other words, natural sexuality is the deadly enemy of mystical religion. The church, by making the fight over sexuality the center of its dogmas and of its influence over the masses, confirms this concept. ~Wilhelm Reich
  28. "Put on your big girl pants and deal with it." ~ Feminists everywhere
  29. "One should no more deplore homosexuality than left-handedness." ~Towards a Quaker View of Sex, 1964
  30. "It always seemed to me a bit pointless to disapprove of homosexuality. It's like disapproving of rain." ~Francis Maude
  31. "The fact that we are all human beings is infinitely more important than all the peculiarities that distinguish humans from one another." ~Simone de Beauvoir (1908--1986)
  32. "Romance and work are great diversions to keep you from dealing with yourself." ~Cher
  33. INTERVIEWER: "How do you do?" MAE WEST: "How do you do what?"
  34. "All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential." ~Harvey Milk
  35. "When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one." ~From the tombstone of a gay Vietnam veteran
  36. "The Bible contains six admonishments to homosexuals and 362 admonishments to heterosexuals. That doesn't mean that God doesn't love heterosexuals. It's just that they need more supervision." ~Lynn Lavner
  37. "My lesbianism is an act of Christian charity. All those women out there praying for a man, and I'm giving them my share." ~Rita Mae Brown
  38. "Why can't they have gay people in the army? Personally, I think they are just afraid of a thousand guys with M16s going: Who'd you call a faggot?" ~ John Stewart
  39. "Some persons are likeable in spite of their unswerving integrity." ~Don Marquis
  40. "It takes no compromising to give people their rights. It takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no survey to remove repressions." ~Harvey Milk
  41. "When water covers the head, a hundred fathoms are as one." ~Persian Proverb
  42. "Soldiers who are not afraid of guns, bombs, capture, torture or death say they are afraid of homosexuals. Clearly we should not be used as soldiers; we should be used as weapons." ~Letter to the editor, The Advocate
  43. "If love is the answer, could you rephrase the question?" ~Lily Tomlin
  44. "Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?" ~Ernest Gaines
  45. "If homosexuality is a disease, let's all call in queer to work: Hello. Can't work today, still queer." ~Robin Tyler
  46. "Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity...any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better." ~John Updike
  47. "War. Rape. Murder. Poverty. Equal rights for gays. Guess which one the Southern Baptist Convention is protesting?" ~The Value of Families
  48. "There's this illusion that homosexuals have sex and heterosexuals fall in love. That's completely untrue. Everybody wants to be loved." ~Boy George
  49. "If time and space are curved, where do all of the straight people come from?" ~Unknown
  50. "What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it's curved like a road through mountains." ~Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire, 1947
  51. "There is nothing wrong with going to bed with someone of your own sex. People should be very free with sex, they should draw the line at goats." ~Elton John
  52. "I'd rather be black than gay because when you're black you don't have to tell your mother." ~Charles Pierce, 1980
  53. "It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it." ~G.K.Chesterton
  54. "That word "lesbian" sounds like a disease. And straight men know because they're sure that they're the cure." ~Denise McCanles
  55. "If gays are granted rights, next we'll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nailbiters." ~Anita Bryant
  56. "Anita Bryant. Like Anita hole in the head." ~Graffiti
  57. "The radical right is so homophobic that they're blaming global warming on the AIDS quilt." ~Dennis Miller
  58. "Jesse Helms and Newt Gingrich were shaking hands congratulating themselves on the introduction of an antigay bill in Congress. If it passes, they won't be able to shake hands, because it will then be illegal for a prick to touch an asshole." ~Judy Carter
  59. "My own belief is that there is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror." ~W. Somerset Maugham
  60. "Drag is when a man wears everything a lesbian won't." ~Unknown
  61. "I am reminded of a colleague who reiterated 'all my homosexual patients are quite sick' - to which I finally replied 'so are all my heterosexual patients'." ~Ernest van den Haag, psychotherapist
  62. "For a long time I thought I wanted to be a nun. Then I realized that what I really wanted to be was a lesbian." ~Mabel Maney
  63. "When it comes to exploring the sea of love, I prefer buoys." ~Andrew G. Dehel
  64. "The degree and kind of a man's sexuality reach up into the ultimate pinnacle of his spirit." ~Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 1886
  65. "If male homosexuals are called 'gay', then female homosexuals should be called 'ecstatic'." ~Shelly Roberts
  66. "My mother took me to a psychiatrist when I was fifteen because she thought I was a latent homosexual. There was nothing latent about it." ~Amanda Bearse
  67. "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." ~Elanor Roosevelt
  68. "Some women can't say the word lesbian... even when their mouth is full of one." ~Kate Clinton
  69. "No matter how far in or out of the closet you are, you still have a next step." ~Unknown
  70. "I know that you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living. And you... And you... And you... Gotta give em hope." ~Harvey Milk
  71. "People who can't think of anything else but whether the person you love is indented or convex should be doomed not to think of anything else but that, and so miss the other ninety-five percent of life." ~Robert Towne
  72. "The closet is an awful place to die." ~Unknown
  73. "The American is hysterical about his manhood." ~Gore Vidal
  74. "To fall in love with yourself is the first secret of happiness. I did so at the age of four-and-a-half. Then if you're not a good mixer you can always fall back on your own company." ~Robert Morley
  75. "There is only one success -- to spend your life in your own way." ~Christopher Morley
  76. "We declare that love cannot exist between two people who are married to each other. For lovers give to each other freely, under no compulsion; married people are in duty bound to give in to each other's desires." ~Marie, Countess of Champagne 1174
  77. "Perhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be thought of as including our own." ~G.C. Lichtenberg
  78. "You must believe in God, in spite of what the clergy say." ~Benjamin Jowett
  79. "You can't change the music of your soul." ~Katherine Hepburn
  80. "We are all omnibuses in which our ancestors ride, and every now and then one of them sticks his head out and embarrasses us." ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
  81. "I cannot love anyone if I hate myself. That is the reason why we feel so extremely uncomfortable in the presence of people who are noted for their special virtuousness, for they radiate an atmosphere of the torture they inflict on themselves. That is not a virtue but a vice." ~Carl Jung
  82. "If you accept your limitations you go beyond them." ~Brendan Francis
  83. "The most important thing is to be whatever you are without shame." ~Rod Steiger
  84. "Twenty-four years ago I was strangely handsome; in San Francisco in the rainy season I was often mistaken for fair weather." ~Mark Twain
  85. "If I turned around every time somebody called me a faggot, I'd be walking backward - and I don't want to walk backward." ~Harvey Milk
  86. "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity." ~Albert Einstein
  87. "Murder is always a mistake. One should never do anything that one cannot talk about after dinner." ~Oscar Wilde
  88. "To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying 'Amen' to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to keep your soul alive." ~Robert Louis Stevenson
  89. "I can take any amount of criticism, so long as it is unqualified praise." ~Noel Coward
  90. "Some of us are becoming the men we wanted to marry." ~Gloria Steinem
  91. "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." ~Mahatma Gandhi
  92. "The best things and best people rise out of their separateness. I'm against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise." ~Robert Frost
  93. "I require three things in a man: he must be handsome, ruthless, and stupid." ~Dorothy Parker
  94. "Love is the answer, but while you are waiting for the answer, sex raises some pretty good questions." ~Woody Allen
  95. "The only reason I feel guilty about masturbation is that I do it so badly." ~David Steinberg
  96. "In an expanding universe, time is on the side of the outcast. Those who once inhabited the suburbs of human contempt find that without changing their address they eventually live in the metropolis." ~Quentin Crisp (The Naked Civil Servant, 1978)
  97. "Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change." ~Frank Lloyd Wright
  98. "It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else." ~John Cage
  99. "I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity." ~Albert Einstein
  100. "The most fatal illusion is the settled point of view. Since life is growth and motion a fixed point of view kills anybody who has one." ~Brook Atkinson
  101. "Sexual harassment at work -- is it a problem for the self-employed?" ~Victoria Wood
  102. "Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that, what have you had?" ~Henry James
  103. "As soon as man apprehends himself as free and wishes to use his freedom, his activity is play." ~Jean-Paul Sartre
  104. "Someday I want to be rich. Some people get so rich they lose all respect for humanity. That's how rich I want to be." ~Rita Rudner
  105. "I cannot prevent anyone from getting angry, or mad, or frustrated. I can only hope that they'll turn that anger and frustration and madness into something positive, so that two, three, four, five hundred will step forward, so the gay doctors will come out, the gay lawyers, the gay judges, gay bankers, gay architects ... I hope that every professional gay will say 'enough', come forward and tell everybody, wear a sign, let the world know. Maybe that will help." ~Harvey Milk, 1978