Mothers, tell your children: be quick, you must be strong. Life is full of wonder, love is never wrong. Remember how they taught you, how much of it was fear. Refuse to hand it down — the legacy stops here. – Melissa Etheridge, "Silent Legacy," Yes I Am, 1993

My mother took me to a psychiatrist when I was fifteen because she thought I was a latent homosexual. There was nothing latent about it. – Amanda Bearse (b.1958)

When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one. – Epitaph of Leonard P. Matlovich, 1988

In itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality: the ideal should be to be capable of loving a woman or a man; either, a human being, without feeling fear, restraint, or obligation. – Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986)