In Their Own Words: Quotes

"I think part of the reason is that the lead character, the hero, is often not popular--not the cheerleader or the jock. Many LGBT kids feel like outcasts. Most gay fans also have a favorite 'final girl' from a film franchise--all the gay men love Amy Steel from Friday the 13th Part 2 because she's a tomboy. She's really pretty but also smart and tough. Films always allow us to project our hopes and dreams, and having outsiders triumph really resonates."-- Jeffrey Reddick, screenwriter and creator of the Final Destination series

"Two of my best friends are a couple, and my conversation with them is, like, it's unfortunate that things take a while to progress like this, but it was a great, great victory for equality. I'm proud that New York has balls to stand up for what's right." --Justin Timberlake on New York's legalization of same-sex marriage

"For an actor to be working is a kind of miracle, because most actors aren't, so it's just silly for a working actor to say, 'Oh, I don't care if anybody knows I'm gay' -- especially if you're a leading man. Personally, I wouldn't advise a gay leading man-type actor to come out." --Richard Chamberlain

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"I know that in my lifetime, everyone American will have the right to legally marry the person they choose and that it will be recognized federally as well as by the state."--White Collar star Matt Bomer

"It's weird how as the LGBT community becomes more visible it has become hip for straight girls to make out. I think that confuses people who are trying to understand what real bisexuality means. It's not just making out with your best sorority friend at a kegger party. There's a little bit more to it than that."--Bisexual blues musician Candye Kane

"In my world gay people enjoy great security in the entertainment business because it's very open, much more so than if you were in a bank or something." --Ewan McGregor

"I mean, my feeling about John [Travolta] has always been that we know and we don't care. Look, I'm sorry that he's uncomfortable with it, and that's all I can say." --Carrie Fisher

"Do I really want to think of myself as a role model? I don't think so. The truth is, if anything, I would like to be seen as a human being doing the best I can with what I've been given, and as someone who muddled through somehow and didn't kill anybody." --Kelly McGillis

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"I don't want gay people to be ashamed of me or to think I'm a stigma on the community. Gay people don't have to like me, as long as they aren't embarrassed that I'm one of them." --Perez Hilton

"It was never my mission or important for me to pass, I only wanted to feel better in my own skin. I think far too much importance is placed on 'looking the part' in our culture, and it's upsetting to me when people use that as a qualifier to decide whether or not someone's identity is real. All you have to do to be real is to open your mouth and identify who you are. I am who I say I am, no matter what my body may visually tell the world, and it's not up for public debate." --Comedian Ian Harvie on being a trans man

"I've learned so much from these transsexuals and transgender people that it's amazing. They are amazing people that have been through so much pain. And that makes them just survivors in my point of view and amazing, amazing people." --Mexican movie star Kate del Castillo on playing a transgender character in the upcoming K-11

"The [Department of Defense] is the largest federal employer to educate their populace about gay rights in one fell swoop. This is what [the National Organization for Marriage] is afraid of. They know that the domino effect [is] that leadership in the Department of Defense are going to see DOMA as a problem." --Log Cabin Republicans executive director R. Clarke Cooper on the fighting the Defense of Marriage Act

"Drag really is something that we are all doing. We're spiritual beings having an experience, and everyone on the planet is essentially creating a character. Drag also just reminds us to have fun. It's important to not take the character we've all created too seriously."--RuPaul, creator of RuPaul's Drag Race, which returns in January

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"I do think that it's kind of unusual to play both the White House and the Michigan Womyn's Festival in one year. When I'm playing at the White House, I'm feeling like, Wow, here I am, an out lesbian, playing at the president's house! And then I'm at Michigan, and I'm feeling like, Here's this place that's nurtured and given strength to all these lesbians over the years, and I get to perform! It's like homecoming for me to play there." --Singer-songwriter Catie Curtis on her mixed audience base

"If anyone I met asked me 'What do you do?' and I told them I was a musician, they'd ask if I was a church organist. If I told them I was in a rock band, they would kind of gasp and walk away. Back then it was my presumption that there were no gay guys who liked rock and roll except for me." --Styx cofounder and rock star Chuck Panozzo, on being gay in the 1970s

"It makes me go, 'Really?' Because I never set out for that honor. It was just a matter of treating people the way I wanted to be treated and doing what I know is right. So, when a community of people says, 'We want to honor you'--just for doing it the way it's supposed to be done, it makes me go, 'Wow.'"-- Mo'Nique, on being awarded the Human Rights Campaign's Ally for Equality Award

"This is what the Founding Fathers--who Michele Bachmann says she loves so much but seems to know so little about--were strangling each other over in hot rooms in Philadelphia all those summers ago. This is what so many people took a musket ball in the face for. And this country should be the leader on all of that." --Punk icon Henry Rollins, on the need for marriage equality

"Oh, please...I think straight people are doing a fine job of it already! Gay people pose no threat whatsoever. I mean, let's think about it: There are blended families, interracial families, single parents--not to mention the dysfunction we see on reality TV. I actually think gay families will lean toward the more conservative and traditional. Talk about irony." --Broadway actress and singer Lea Salonga, on the notion that same-sex marriage will destroy "traditional" marriage

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"I think it made me keener about human behavior. I felt empathy for people who were shunned, who were bullied, who were teased. It made me more aware of the human condition at an early age. I don't know if I would have the same take on world matters and social issues if I were not gay." --CNN journalist Don Lemon, on growing up gay in the South

"Some of the most successful interior designers have been straight men. I just think gay men happen to like to experiment a little bit more than straight men do in their own homes when they're single."--HGTV host David Bromstad, on the belief that all interior designers are gay

"One of the main reasons I wanted to do the show was to show that reality television doesn't have to star people who are just nasty for a living. They're not pointing a camera at us because we're yelling and fighting and throwing drinks in each other's faces." --Gay designer Chris March, star of Mad Fashion, on his Bravo series

"Part of my approach to being gay in public has always been that it shouldn't be a big deal, so I didn't want to make a big deal out of it. But there came a point when I realized that that could be confused with being ashamed or being afraid, and I never wanted to give that impression." --Frasier star David Hyde Pierce, on coming out

"They should have sensitivity training to know there are certain kinds of things they're not allowed to do, whatever their personal beliefs may be." --Musician Ari Gold, after being asked to move to the back of a bus for holding hands with his boyfriend in New York

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"I'm pretty single right now, but the best part about this whole process is the starfuckers. They've been coming out of the woodwork, and they're adorable." --Raja, season 3 winner of RuPaul's Drag Race