Burst down those closet doors once and for all, and stand up and start to fight.
Harvey MilkRead
All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential.
Interpretation
Every young person deserves a supportive space to grow, irrespective of their identity.
This quote by Harvey Milk emphasizes the fundamental right of all young people to have a safe and nurturing environment that allows them to thrive and reach their full potential. It underscores the importance of inclusivity and support for individuals of all sexual orientations and identities, advocating for a society that protects and values diversity among youth.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about youth empowerment at a community event.
Burst down those closet doors once and for all, and stand up and start to fight.
If I do a good job, people won't care if I am green or have three heads.
Rights are won only by those who make their voices heard.
If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door in the country.
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.
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.
At 20, 25, 30, we begin to realise that the possibilities of escape are getting fewer. We have jobs, children, partners, debts. This is the part of us to which literary fiction speaks.
The names are the first things to go, after the breath has gone, and the beating of the heart. We keep our memories longer than our names.
Even though I'm seventeen, I guess I still thought this would always be true - that there would always be that lost-and-found, and not the lost-and-still-lost that I am now trapped inside.
I live now on borrowed time, waiting in the anteroom for the summons that will inevitably come. And then - I go on to the next thing, whatever it is. One doesn't, luckily, have to bother about that.
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men, Gang aft a-gley, And leave us nought but grief and pain, For promised joy.
This is where I started life. This is where I went to uni. This is where the people I know are. This is my country, and when I put on my Great Britain vest, I'm proud, very proud, that it's my country.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.