I was an older brother. So I had to do a lot of things first. My father was a self-made man, and he would beat me senseless. But he was a Scotsman, and stubborn. I'm his son, and I'm stubborn, too. I go on being stubborn.

Ostracism means you don't exist at all. And that's a very difficult situation to live with. As gay people, we had been chasing ostracism by that point for probably 300 years. You just knew that you should have dropped into your black hole.

I always say to people, If you share my dream, why don't we walk together? And that's my only organizing tool.

The assimilationist movement is running us into the ground.

Assimilation is the way you excuse yourself. It absolutely never worked at all. You may not think you are noticeable. But they know who you are. They know you're a degenerate, and they've never forgotten that.

The police had a practice of entrapping people. This was done all over the country, but we had a particularly vicious group here in Southern California because of the Hollywood situation. They knew they could get a lot of them. They were shaking down people for thousands in blackmail.

Give yourself permission to enjoy being gay. You do have to give yourself permission. You have been told you may not. Give yourself permission to be free.

I knew that I was gay in every bone of my body. So I did the only thing I could do. I started the movement.

A law is a law. It can be voted in. It can be voted out. It can be voted in and stay in as long as you have the majority. And where do you have the majority? You kid yourself.

I've always felt I carried a golden secret, a wonderful secret. Every time I thought about it, it made me feel warm inside and good.

Underneath that facade, I'm a terrified little sissy, just like everybody else. But I never let it show.

I condemn the national gay press for its emphasis on consumerism.