If you play a gay role, it sticks more than it does if an actor were to play a murderer or a psychopath.

I am very indebted to southern writers and not just Flannery O'Connor. Also Harry Crews, Larry Brown, Tennessee Williams, Barry Hannah and William Gay.

I've been a homosexual all my life. My partner and I don't want to stand up and say we're gay, because we think that's wrong.

The majority of people are straight, and movies, with their bigger budgets and burdensome marketing costs, will try to appeal to as many people as they can. As the means of production and distribution become more democratized with advances in technology, more gay stories will make their way to the mainstream.

I didn't always see someone that I could relate to, that would tell me that being Black and gay is okay.

In my real life, both my bosses are gay. On the 'Real Housewives of Atlanta,' Andy Cohen is gay, everybody at Bravo is gay - we call them the gay mafia. Over at 'Glee' and 'The New Normal,' my boss Ryan Murphy is gay. On the show, my boss, played by Andrew Reynolds, is gay in real life. I'm surrounded by all my gay bosses.

In the 1980s, there weren't a lot of role models for gay teenagers.

I cannot be a placard waver for every campaign; that's why I have mostly kept quiet about gay marriage.

I don't feel, finally, that my politics are entirely determined by the fact that I'm a gay man.

Gay people are born everyday. You will never legislate that away.

I didn't always see someone that I could relate to, that would tell me that being Black and gay is okay.

The term 'new queer cinema' and the films of mine that were associated with that term are from a very, very different time, one almost entirely defined by the AIDS era. It was a very different social and cultural regard for the lives, the experiences, the worth of gay people.

I am a gay American.

Regardless of whether you're in a gay or heterosexual relationship, you're going to go through your ups and downs.

We're into a world where we're not talking about gay or straight or bisexual any more so much as we're talking about being transgender or identifying as a woman if you're a man.

There just needs to be a gay rapper. He doesn't have to be flamboyant, just a rapper who identifies as gay - who's better than everybody. Unfortunately hip-hop is so competitive that in order for fringe groups to get in, you gotta be better than whoever's the best.

I never thought I would be somewhat of a gay icon.

I'm lively and gay by nature.

My brother is gay - he's a couple of years older than me, and I could not be more proud of him. It was right for him. If a player was going through something similar at a younger age, I feel I would be understanding because I was there to watch it with my brother.

I think I was more just not comfortable with saying it. I was also in denial. I was like, 'I'm not gay, am I?' Cause I think, also the fact that I didn't fit the stereotypical mold of what a lesbian is supposed to be or act, I was just this girl that nobody would have expected.