If you don’t define yourself for yourself then you will be crushed into other's fantasies of you and eaten alive

Only by learning to live in harmony with your contradictions can you keep it all afloat.

I stand here as a black lesbian feminist, having been invited to comment within the only panel at this conference where the input of black feminists and lesbians is represented. What this says about the vision of this conference is sad, in a country where racism, sexism and homophobia are inseparable. . . .

We are powerful because we have survived

Guilt and defensiveness are bricks in a wall against which we all flounder; they serve none of our futures.

In other words, I would be giving in to a myth of sameness which I think can destroy us.

To face the realities of our lives is not a reason for despair-despair is a tool of your enemies. Facing the realities of our lives gives us motivation for action. For you are not powerless... You know why the hard questions must be asked. It is not altruism, it is self-preservation-survival.