politician, naval officer, human rights defender, LGBTQ rights activist
🔗 Read on Wikipedia1930 – 1978
If you help elect more gay people, that gives a green light to all who feel disenfranchised, a green light to move forward. It means hope to a nation that has given up, because if a gay person makes it, the doors are open to everyone.
All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential.
I have never considered myself a candidate. I have always considered myself part of a movement, part of a candidacy. I considered the movement the candidate. I think that there's a distinction between those who use the movement and those who are part of the movement. I think I was always part of the movement. I wish I had time to explain everything I did. Almost everything was done with an eye on the gay movement.
I don't think we have a right to take the people who raised us, who made us strong and healthy, and toss them away like a can of beer.
I ask for the movement to continue, for the movement to grow, because last week I got a phone call from Altoona, Pennsylvania, and my election gave somebody else, one more person, hope. And after all, that's what this is all about. It's not about personal gain, not about ego, not about power — it's about giving those young people out there in the Altoona, Pennsylvanias, hope. You gotta give them hope.
If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door in the country.
I have tasted freedom. I will not give up that which I have tasted.
It takes no compromising to give people their rights. It takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no survey to remove repressions.
If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.
How can people change their minds about us if they don't know who we are?
Hope will never be silent.