Gay Representation Quotes

We don't really get to see gay characters who are completely open with their sexuality, but it doesn't define who they are.

It's also one thing to see a celebrity or some kind of character on a TV show being gay. It's a totally different thing when you know your husband... not your husband, but your brother or your friend or the dude you hung out in high school was gay. I mean, that is what changes people's minds, what changes people's minds.

If you look at my life before I went into television, the struggle I went through coming out would be surprising to most people, given how comfortable and how out I am being the only late-night gay talk-show host.

We have a society where every hit maker and TV presenter is gay.

When you see me play Jack, I want you to believe that that's a gay character.

I've never wanted to live in a ghetto or write in a ghetto. I want to write about a world that reflects the one most people live in. Gay people are just one aspect of that.

I think about 'Will & Grace,' and I think about 'Modern Family,' and the way that being gay has become sort of middle America... in the way that they show gay people in their specific way.

When I was growing up, we didn't have 'Will & Grace.' The one gay character was Monroe from 'Too Close For Comfort' - and he wasn't even gay! At least they didn't say he was. Same with Mr. Furley from 'Three's Company.' You know, these were the characters that people would always make fun of.

Right now I just want to play good roles, and if the role happens to be a gay man, that's not of any import other than, 'Is it a good story? Does it say something that's interesting?'

I've got to include things like "I've Got A Crush On You," and put my stamp on it with the (openly gay) saxophonist Dave Koz.

I think my election is one of several indications that gay and lesbian folk are being brought more into the center of things. I'd like to think that my election signals my bringing of gay and lesbian folk into the center of the church.

Drag has been featured in popular culture for decades. Movies like 'Kinky Boots,' 'Tootsie,' 'The Birdcage' - even 'Mrs. Doubtfire' - have showcased men, some gay, some not, who dress and perform as women.

I grew up in a conservative small town, and the gay characters I saw on TV and in movies when I was growing up were all flamboyant and obnoxious and sometimes kind of annoying.

I feel like Hollywood likes to use gay people to tell either really sad gay stories starring straight actors, or everything's about a struggle. Everything's about coming out. Nothing was about just living and breathing as a human being who happens to be gay.

In my real life, both my bosses are gay. On the 'Real Housewives of Atlanta,' Andy Cohen is gay, everybody at Bravo is gay - we call them the gay mafia. Over at 'Glee' and 'The New Normal,' my boss Ryan Murphy is gay. On the show, my boss, played by Andrew Reynolds, is gay in real life. I'm surrounded by all my gay bosses.

I think, almost, the film industry thinks that by making gay characters super masculine, it's an attempt at saying being gay is OK if you act like straight people. I don't think we should just have gay characters who are 100 percent femme, either. I just think it's about that mix and creating more diverse gay characters.

I can't tell you why I keep getting asked to play gay characters, but I never really considered 'gay' as an adjective, as a playable thing. Maybe it's an element of the character, but it just describes a preference.

The writers have slowly taken the show, with subjects other gay shows have dived right into, slowly. It was over a year before Will even started to date.

Early on, after gay liberation, there was an almost Stalinist pressure from gay critics and even gay readers to write about positive role models. We were never supposed to write negative things about gays, or else we were seen as collaborating with the enemy.

For me to play gay, it has to be something special because it might actually be more of a risk. So I'm waiting for that role - I want it to be something that moves things forward.

People are interested not just in Sulu, but George Takei - and he's gay. Life is full of twist and turns.

When I started, there was more of a cultural assumption that many readers would find gay characters irrelevant or repugnant.

I do think television has really fantasized it to the point where now everyone wants a gay best friend.

'Queer as Folk' is gay gay gay gay gay.

In the old-fashioned sitcoms, to be gay was, in itself, funny, and you laughed at the characters rather than with them.