Gay History Quotes

“The heavy warlike losses of the AIDS years were relegated to queer studies classrooms, taught as gay history and not American history.”
― Alysia Abbott, Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father

“The dancing and the faggotry of the Bon Soir is 'kiss my ass if you don't like it. I've got nothing to hide or lose' style. Much like what you see uptown and with a strong Spanerican flavor. This can be a make-out bar, but in truth this place belongs to the people who are already making it. This is where they come to have a good time, to 'go out.' It's yeastier. It's lower-class. It's a fun bar. It's the kind of place where on the slow ones you can belly-rub and grind your interforked aching bodies together and know that since it's your own thing, you can damn well do it without interference or apology.”
― Angelo d'Arcangelo

“Somehow, I had ended up the lone male at the table, surrounded by three women of very questionable reputation. A great deal of whiskey had been consumed in the meantime, and I wondered what Father would think if he knew how his money was being spent.

Actually, never mind. If he knew I'd spent the night surrounded by female prostitutes, he'd probably consider it a sign of improvement.”
― Jordan L. Hawk, Threshold

“The existence of homosexuality, not as a circumstantial matter of passing sexual whim, but as a shared condition and identity, raises the intriguing possibility of homosexual culture, or at least of a minority subculture with sexual identity as its base. At the very least, by sympathetic identification with cultural texts which appeared to be affirmative, homosexual people saw a way to shore up their self-respect in the face of constant moral attack, and they found materials with which to justify themselves not only to each other but also to those who found their very existence, let alone their behaviour, unjustifiable.”
― Gregory Woods, A History of Gay Literature: The Male Tradition

“It was my conclusion that any people who were oppressed, particularly gay people like myself, could not depend upon others to be our heroes. We could not quit struggling for survival because one man with charisma and foresight had been murdered. There had to be enough of us to carry our own banners, even though the majority of us were still unseen. If we wanted conditions to be different, it was up to us to accomplish the change. And if some of us fell in battle, there would be a surplus of gay people to continue the fight - forever!”
― Troy D. Perry, Don't Be Afraid Anymore: The Story of Reverend Troy D. Perry and the Metropolitan Community Churches

“We need to know that our government, the government of our birth in most cases, cares about us! I remember how difficult growing up as a gay youth was, and I don't want young men and young women who follow me to have to put up with the anxiety and misery that millions of us have already endured. There has been enough suffering! Those of us here are proud to represent the gay community because we know that we are whole persons, know we're not sinners, know we're not perverted, know we're not monsters, know we're not mentally ill! You may continue to believe what you want. Maybe I can't change that. But to be given our fair and Constitutional rights - that's what we are asking for.”
― Troy D. Perry, Don't Be Afraid Anymore: The Story of Reverend Troy D. Perry and the Metropolitan Community Churches

“Same-sex love has often been relegated to the margins of art as problematic (and preferably tragic).”
― R.B. Parkinson, A Little Gay History: Desire and Diversity Around the World

“After the Stonewall riots the gay activists had their idealistic hearts in the right place but it turned out they had underestimated the realpolitik of organized crime. Indeed, as gay liberation blossomed in the wild 1970s the bars and bathhouses became increasingly lucrative enterprises, and the Mafia had no intention of abandoning a racket it had controlled for decades. The Mafia families maintained their control by exercising the proverbial carrot and stick. The wise guys seemingly embraced the gay rights movement and cut more so-called Auntie Gays into the action as their fronts, and resorted to violent threats and sometimes murder against others who refused to play ball with the crime families. There were few legitimate businessmen in gay nightlife of the 1970s.”
― Phillip Crawford Jr., The Mafia and the Gays