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“The best thing about coming out is, it's totally liberating. You feel like you've made this incredible discovery about yourself and you want to share it and be open and honest and not spend all your time wondering how is this person going to react, or should I be careful around this person, or what will the neighbors say? And it's more. It's about getting past the question of what's wrong with me, to knowing there's nothing wrong, that you were born this way. You're a normal person and a beautiful person and you should be proud of who you are. You deserve to live with dignity and show people your pride.”
― Julie Anne Peters, Keeping You a Secret

“Amazing how eye and skin color come in many shades yet many think sexuality is just gay or straight.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“Only by speaking out can we create lasting change. And that change begins with coming out.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“When you hear of Gay Pride, remember, it was not born out of a need to celebrate being gay.

It evolved out of our need as human beings to break free of oppression and to exist without being criminalized, pathologized or persecuted.

Depending on a number of factors, particularly religion, freeing ourselves from gay shame and coming to self-love and acceptance, can not only be an agonising journey, it can take years.
Tragically some don't make it.

Instead of wondering why there isn't a straight pride be grateful you have never needed one.

Celebrate with us.”
― Anthony Venn-Brown, A Life of Unlearning - a journey to find the truth

“Sometimes it takes more than shouting it to show your pride. It takes more than a sign, a fabulous outfit, or a month of parades. Pride has to resonate from within; shine out to everyone around you. It has mean something to you and only you first before you announce it to the world.”
― Solange nicole

“Lesbian rights.”
― Louis Tomlinson

“It's not conversion 'therapy;' it's conversion brainwashing.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“Your judgments about another person say more about your own character than the character of the person you’re pointing a finger at.”
― Alaric Hutchinson, Living Peace: Essential Teachings For Enriching Life

“As a young gay African, I have been conditioned from an early age to consider my sexuality a dangerous deviation from my true heritage as a Somali by close kin and friends. As a young gay African coming of age in London, there was another whiplash of cultural confusion that one had to recover from again and again: that accepting your sexual identity doesn’t necessarily mean that the wider LGBT community, with its own preconceived notions of what constitutes a "valid" queer identity, will embrace you any more welcomingly than your own prejudiced kinsfolk do.”
― Diriye Osman

“I've always loved being gay. Sure, Kenya was not exactly Queer Nation but my sexuality gave me joy. I was young, not so dumb and full of cum! There was no place for me in heaven but I was content munching devil's pie here on earth.”
― Diriye Osman, Fairytales for Lost Children

“If you think being straight means you're being discriminated against, you're probably misreading your privilege.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“Protesting often times takes a stance of offense; a form of violence that may not always be physical but is a form of violence all the same. Everyone has the right to be heard, but only if they are willing to really listen to others in an attempt to understand. As an atheist, I have never stood outside a church and disrupted their gathering, although I am willing to have a conversation about how my journey brought me here and how you have come to this point. For me to enter a gathering and protest is an offensive move that would cause the people involved to put up walls. It would not be welcomed and I would not do it. It would be a hindrance to us actually knowing and understanding each other.

The only way to truly know someone is by being with them, by conversation.”
― Eric Overby

“This place was the “ARTâ€� that gave form to the feelings of our heartbeats. Here the consciousness of knowing you “belongedâ€� nestled into that warm feeling of finally being HOME. And Home engenders love and loyalty quite naturally. So, we loved the Stonewall.”
― New York Public Library, The Stonewall Reader

“It is a testament to my parents that they never reacted negatively to the four-year-long pride parade that marched through their house.”
― Tina Fey, Bossypants

“The dancing and the faggotry of the Bon Soir is 'kiss my ass if you don't like it. I've got nothing to hide or lose' style. Much like what you see uptown and with a strong Spanerican flavor. This can be a make-out bar, but in truth this place belongs to the people who are already making it. This is where they come to have a good time, to 'go out.' It's yeastier. It's lower-class. It's a fun bar. It's the kind of place where on the slow ones you can belly-rub and grind your interforked aching bodies together and know that since it's your own thing, you can damn well do it without interference or apology.”
― Angelo d'Arcangelo

“Saying it's hard being straight is like complaining to the poor that it's difficult being wealthy.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“The protestor also asked me why I was there, did I have a family member who is gay? He stated, “You don’t just come to these things for no reasonâ€�. I replied, “Honestly, I did start going and taking my family to gay pride festivals just to be amongst other cultures. It’s good to get to know people who are different from yourself.â€� The world’s a big place and you may find that you have more in common with people than you think or, in this case, that you know more gay people than you think. I would like to say the same to you.”
― Eric Overby

“Like things such as sexism and homophobia, racism is an acquired taste.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Having visibility â€� and real-life role models â€� really matters.”
― Ella Braidwood