The single most important thing you can do politically for gay rights is to come out. Not to write a letter to your congressman but to come out.
Interpretation
Coming out as LGBTQ+ is more impactful for political progress than traditional activism.
Barney Frank emphasizes that the most effective way to support gay rights is through personal honesty and visibility rather than relying solely on conventional political actions. By coming out, individuals contribute to a greater understanding and acceptance within society, which can lead to political change. This act of self-identification not only affirms one's identity but also challenges stereotypes and fosters solidarity within the LGBTQ+ community and beyond.
In practice
During Pride Month, individuals might use this quote to encourage others to embrace their identity.
There's never a mistake in the universe. So if your partner is angry, good. If there are things about him that you consider flaws, good, because these flaws are your own, you're projecting them, and you can write them down, inquire, and set yourself free. People go to India to find a guru, but you don't have to: you're living with one. Your partner will give you everything you need for your own freedom.
There could have never been two hearts so open, no tastes so similar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved. Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted. It was a perpetual estrangement.
I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that's not what America's about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don't contract them.
Heavy misfortunes have befallen us, but let us only cling closer to what remains, and transfer our love for those whom we have lost to those who yet live. Our circle will be small, but bound close by the ties of affection and mutual misfortune. And when time shall have softened your despair, new and dear objects of care will be born to replace those of whom we have been so cruelly deprived.
When I die, remember that what you knew of me is with you always. What is buried is only the shell of what was. Do not regret the shell, but remember the man. Remember the father.
Where there must be a choice, a girl will choose Daddy. Even if you are Mommy, you concede that this must be so: you remember when you were a girl, too.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.