We are coming out to tell the truths about gays, for I am tired of the conspiracy of silence, so I'm going to talk about it. And I want you to talk about it.

It's not my victory, it's yours and yours and yours. If a gay can win, it means there is hope that the system can work for all minorities if we fight. We've given them hope.

I finally reached the point where I knew I had to become involved or shut up.

To sit on the front steps — whether it's a veranda in a small town or a concrete stoop in a big city — and to talk to our neighborhoods is infinitely more important than to huddle on the living-room lounger and watch a make-believe world in not-quite living color.

Coming out is the most political thing you can do

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 I turned around every time somebody called me a faggot, I'd be walking backward - and I don't want to walk backward.