You’ve read the books. You’re shopping queer-owned brands. You’re saying no to rainbow washing and you’re ready to march at the Pride Parade. Now, here are 55 Pride Month quotes from activists, actors, authors and other luminaries who said it best. Use them as a fitting Instagram caption or simply read on and be inspired by the likes of James Baldwin, Rachel Maddow, Lady Gaga and Harvey Milk.
55 Pride Month Quotes That Inspire, Encourage and Uplift
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Published May 18, 2023
1. “Love is never wrong.” — Melissa Etheridge
2. “What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it’s curved like a road through mountains.” — Tennessee Williams
3. “There are worst things in life than kissing boys.” — Benjamin Alire Sáenz
4. “Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.” — Harvey Fierstein
5. “Our society needs to recognize the unstoppable momentum toward unequivocal civil equality for every gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizen of this country.” — Zachary Quinto
6. “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” — Oscar Wilde
7. “I’m living by example by continuing on with my career and having a full, rich life, and I am incidentally gay.” — Portia de Rossi
8. “Equality means more than passing laws. The struggle is really won in the hearts and minds of the community, where it really counts.” — Barbara Gittings
9. “When you put love out in the world it travels, and it can touch people and reach people in ways that we never even expected.” — Laverne Cox
10. “Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters?” — James Baldwin
11. “Gender and sexuality are so fluid. It’s OK to change your mind a million times and figure out what works for you. It’s OK to take your time.” — Amandla Stenberg
12. “This community has fought and continues to fight a war of acceptance, a war of tolerance and the most relentless bravery. You are the definition of courage, do you know that?” — Lady Gaga
13. “All of us who are openly gay are living and writing the history of our movement. We are no more—and no less—heroic than the suffragists and abolitionists of the 19th century; and the labor organizers, Freedom Riders, Stonewall demonstrators, and environmentalists of the 20th century. We are ordinary people, living our lives, and trying as civil rights activist Dorothy Cotton said, to ‘fix what ain’t right’ in our society.” — Tammy Baldwin
14. “When all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free.” — Barack Obama
15. “Every gay and lesbian person who has been lucky enough to survive the turmoil of growing up is a survivor. Survivors always have an obligation to those who will face the same challenges.” — Bob Paris
16. “But I’m not a saint yet. I’m an alcoholic. I’m a drug addict. I’m homosexual. I’m a genius. Of course, I could be all four of these dubious things and still be a saint.” — Truman Capote
17. “We deserve to experience love fully, equally, without shame and without compromise.” — Elliot Page
18. “The next time someone asks you why LGBT Pride marches exist or why Gay Pride Month is June tell them, ‘A bisexual woman named Brenda Howard thought it should be.’” — Brenda Howard
19. “My silence had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you.” — Audre Lorde
20. “I hate the word homophobia. It’s not a phobia. You’re not scared. You’re an a**hole.” — Morgan Freeman
21. “And if you help elect...more gay people, that gives a green light to all who feel disenfranchised, a green light to move forward. It means hope to a nation that has given up, because if a gay person makes it, the doors are open to everyone.” — Harvey Milk
22. “It is absolutely imperative that every human being’s freedom and human rights are respected, all over the world.”— Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
23. “The only queer people are those who don’t love anybody.” — Rita Mae Brown
24. “What I preach is: people fall in love with people, not gender, not looks, not whatever. What I’m in love with exists on almost a spiritual level.” — Miley Cyrus
25. “The Lord is my Shepherd and He knows I’m gay.” — Troy Perry
26. “The single best thing about coming out of the closet is that nobody can insult you by telling you what you’ve just told them.” — Rachel Maddow
27. “If a transvestite doesn’t say ‘I’m gay and I’m proud and I’m a transvestite,’ then nobody else is going to hop up there and say ‘I’m gay and I’m proud and I’m a transvestite’ for them.” — Marsha P. Johnson
28. “Love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside.” — Lin-Manuel Miranda
29. “I’ve been embraced by a new community. That’s what happens when you’re finally honest about who you are; you find others like you.” — Chaz Bono
30. “We should indeed keep calm in the face of difference, and live our lives in a state of inclusion and wonder at the diversity of humanity.” — George Takei
31. “You don’t have to be gay to be a supporter—you just have to be a human.” — Daniel Radcliffe
32. “There will always be enemies. Time to stop being your own.” — Larry Kramer
33. “There’s nothing wrong with you. There’s a lot wrong with the world you live in.” — Chris Colfer
34. “Your judgments about another person say more about your own character than the character of the person you’re pointing a finger at.” — Alaric Hutchinson
35. “Being born gay, Black and female is not a revolutionary act. Being proud to be a gay, Black female is.” — Lena Waithe
36. “To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow—this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.” — Elizabeth Gilbert
37. “You look ridiculous if you dance. You look ridiculous if you don’t dance. So you might as well dance.” — Gertrude Stein
38. “Hope will never be silent.” — Harvey Milk
39. “Personally, coming out was one of the most important things I’ve ever done, lifting from my shoulders the millstone of lies that I hadn’t even realized I was carrying.” — Sir Ian McKellen
40. “We are powerful because we have survived.” — Audre Lorde
41. “Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?” — Ernest J. Gaines
42. “I think being gay is a blessing, and it’s something I am thankful for every single day.” — Anderson Cooper
43. “Gays are not interested in making other people gay…but homophobes are interested in making others homophobic.” — Stephen Fry
44. “Being gay isn’t something you choose, but you do face choices about whether and how to discuss it.” — Pete Buttigieg
45. “I think the world has a place for gay superheroes, certainly.” — Stan Lee
46. “I believe that telling our stories, first to ourselves and then to one another and the world, is a revolutionary act.” — Janet Mock
47. “I’m a young, bisexual woman, and I’ve spent a large part of my life trying to validate myself—to my friends, to my family, to myself—trying to prove that who I love and how I feel is not a phase.” — Halsey
48. “No person is your friend who demands your silence or denies your right to grow.” — Alice Walker
49. “Love doesn’t care how much money you have. It doesn’t care who your parents are. It doesn’t care if you’re gay, straight, or transgender.” — Rumer Willis
50. “We are not actually equal—humanity—if we are not allowed to freely love one another.” — Lady Gaga
51. “There will not be a magic day when we wake up and it’s now OK to express ourselves publicly. We make that day by doing things publicly until it’s simply the way things are.” — Tammy Baldwin
52. “Gay, straight, bi, whatever—it doesn’t matter. Love is love.” — Amber Liu
53. “Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” — James Baldwin
54. “It matters not who you love, where you love, why you love, when you love, or how you love. It matters only that you love.” — John Lennon
55. “Gay rights are human rights.” — Hillary Clinton
