What gay culture is before it is anything else, before it is a culture of desire or a culture of subversion or a culture of pain, is a culture of friendship.

When I was about eight, I asked my mother if it was true that God knows everything about you. When she answered yes, I said, 'Then there's no hope for me, Mum.'

You know, American citizens, I don't think, ever thought that the right to the pursuit of happiness did not include the right to marry the person you love. But for a whole number of Americans, gay Americans, that happens to be true.

Homosexuality is like the weather. It just is.

The most successful marriages, gay or straight, even if they begin in romantic love, often become friendships. It's the ones that become the friendships that last.

How can you tell when a political ideology has become the equivalent of a religion?

Anything that raises any internal honesty about gay life is inherently suspect.

I can barely remember what I wrote yesterday, let alone 10 years ago.

I enjoy being around people who disagree with me; and I enjoy being in non-political contexts and activities.

I purge compulsively. I'm constantly shedding things.

In many ways, my attachment to human freedom was completely compatible with my right to live freely as a homosexual.

My own early crusade for same-sex marriage, for example, is now mainstream gay politics. It wasn't when I started.

No American should be forced to choose between their spouse and their country.

The Dixiecrats meet again in New York. Now they're called Republicans.

The good news about me is that my friends and social network is entirely independent of politics.

The relationship of black Americans to Obama is sociologically riveting.

There is something about hearing your president affirm your humanity that you don't know what effect it has until you hear it.

We've got fuel prices coming down and good travel numbers coming out, so it's not surprising airline stocks are going up.

When I first started talking about gay marriage, most people in the gay community looked at me as if I was insane or possibly a fascist reactionary.

When you put a tiny and despised minority up for a popular vote, the minority usually loses.