A reading of the Declaration of Independence on the steps of a building is widely covered. The events that started the American Revolution were the meetings in homes, pubs, on street corners.

It takes no compromise to give people their rights

We will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets.

All over the country, they're reading about me, and the story doesn't center on me being gay. It's just about a gay person who is doing his job.

If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door in the country.

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 it were true that children mimicked their teachers, you'd sure have a helluva lot more nuns running around.