I know I can't tell you what it's like to be gay. But I can tell you what it's not. It's not hiding behind words, Mama. Like family and decency and Christianity.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of authenticity over superficial labels or social norms.
In this quote, Armistead Maupin reflects on the experience of being gay, highlighting that it is not about conforming to societal expectations or hiding one's true self behind comforting but misleading words like family and decency. Instead, it speaks to the essence of openness and the courage to embrace one's identity honestly, free from the constraints of hypocrisy or judgment.
In practice
A speaker at a pride event might use this quote to emphasize the importance of living one's truth.
In her opinion, the parrots were annoying arrogant. You could buy the most beautiful one in town, she observed, but that won't make it love you. You could feed it, care for it and exclaim over its loveliness, but there was nothing to guarantee that it would stay home with you. There had to be a lesson in there somewhere.
My mother once told me that if a married couple puts a penny in a pot for every time they make love in the first year, and takes a penny out every time after that, they'll never get all the pennies out of the pot.
But it's amazing how many people think that gay men should slink off into the shadows when it comes to having friendships with children.
Oh, Mona, we're all damned fools! Some of us just have more fun with it than others. Loosen up, dear! Don't be so afraid to cry . . . or laugh, for that matter. Laugh all you want and cry all you want and whistle at pretty men in the street and to hell with anybody who thinks you're a damned fool!
I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don't make that mistake yourself. Life's too damn short.
My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don't make that mistake yourself. Life's too damn short.
You know, when I first went into the movies Lionel Barrymore played my grandfather. Later he played my father and finally he played my husband. If he had lived I'm sure I would have played his mother. That's the way it is in Hollywood. The men get younger and the women get older.
Studies show that if people think that they are treated fairly by the police, that matters almost more than what the result is. If you get stopped for a traffic stop and feel that you are treated courteously and fairly, you are much more likely to accept the fact that you got a speeding ticket.
When you stop putting yourself on the line, and you don't touch your own heart, how do you expect to touch other people?
The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.
I think that there's no doubt that as I see friends, families, children of gay couples who are thriving, you know, that has an impact on how I think about these issues.
We shall be free only together, black and white. We shall survive only together, black and white. We can be human only together, black and white.
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