Most writers tend to get worse rather than better. I'm determined to be one that gets better.
Edmund WhiteRead
The Stonewall riots were a key moment for gay people. Throughout modern history, gays had thought of themselves as something like a mental illness or maybe a sin or a crime. Gay liberation allowed us to make the leap to being a 'minority group,' which made life much easier.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The Stonewall riots were pivotal in transforming perceptions of gay identity from one of shame to pride as a minority group.
Edmund White highlights the significance of the Stonewall riots in the journey towards gay liberation. Before this moment, many gay individuals viewed their identities through a lens of stigma, shame, and criminality. The events at Stonewall sparked a powerful shift that allowed the LGBTQ+ community to embrace their identities as a legitimate minority group, fostering a sense of pride and belonging that eased the struggles they faced in society.
Themes
StonewallGay LiberationIdentityMinority GroupPride
In practice
Example use cases
A speech at a pride event celebrating the advancements made in LGBTQ+ rights.
More from Edmund White
All quotes →I've always seen writing as a way of telling the truth. For me, writing is about truth. I have always tried to be faithful to my own experience.
Edmund WhiteRead
In a memoir, your main contract with the reader is to tell the truth, no matter how bizarre.
Edmund WhiteRead
If bigots oppose gay marriage so vehemently, it must be because marriage is a defining institution for them; gays will never be fully accepted until they can marry and adopt, like anyone else.
Edmund WhiteRead
When we are young... we often experience things in the present with a nostalgia-in-advance, but we seldom guess what we will truly prize years from now.
Edmund WhiteRead
I was never an assimilationist. I always thought gays had some special mission.
Edmund WhiteRead
Similar quotes
I became vegan because I saw footage of what really goes on in the slaughterhouses and on the dairy farms.
Ellen DegeneresRead
Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.
Kofi AnnanRead
To think that the new economy is over is like somebody in London in 1830 saying the entire industrial revolution is over because some textile manufacturers in Manchester went broke.
Alvin TofflerRead
There are those who still think they are holding the pass against a revolution that may be coming up the road. But they are gazing in the wrong direction. The revolution is behind them. It went by in the Night of Depression, singing songs to freedom.
Garet GarrettRead
the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.
Steve JobsRead
Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.
Henry David ThoreauRead