My father, who was from a wealthy family and highly educated, a lawyer, Yale and Columbia, walked out with the benefit of a healthy push from my mother, a seventh grade graduate, who took a typing course and got a secretarial job as fast as she could.

We have many cases of men committing suicide rather than face their own individuality. I know of no case of a woman who committed suicide because she was gay.

Men spend their whole lives showing that they're strong and silent. They fight for independence the way women struggle to connect.

And I've known people who came out with a sense of torture.

We're all here at the same time and we should celebrate that.

My dearest friend in the movement is Jack Nichols. If there were no such thing as gay or straight, we would still talk and share experiences till the end of time.

What worse illness can there be than acute conventionality. You should pray every night that you don't wake up with it.