Even there, [Barack] Obama's generals, his Pentagon, they're telling him what to do. And the force for gay rights is inevitable. And you can say Obama will help us, and maybe he will, but only if we have something on the ground that will make him help us. Frankly, the gay movement on the ground has been one of the great propulsive things that has made politicians do what they do.

Art and activism can be symbiotic. They don't have to be, of course; they can also be contradictory.

That's in the nature of social change. So you can analyze what didn't work, but it's very hard to predict what will work.

The nice thing about being detained in Canada is it's like being in a Days Inn; it's very clean and very nice.

If you listen to the debate, [Barack Obama] and [John] McCain said the same thing about gay rights.

Hating war in Vietnam in 1965 was minority position.

There were no political ideas. It was an apolitical time. It was the '50s and in the privilege of the suburbs.