Harry Hay Quotes

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

Harry Hay

#2. 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.

Harry Hay

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

Harry Hay

#4. The assimilationist movement is running us into the ground.

Harry Hay

#5. The moment you say, "We are proud. I'm proud to be this, and I'm proud to be that," what you're saying is we're almost as good as the others. "Almost" always means not quite.

Harry Hay

#6. With the full realization that, in order to earn for ourselves any place in the sun, we must with perseverance and self-discipline work collectively for the full first-class citizenship participation of Minorities everywhere, including ourselves.

Harry Hay

#7. I was accustomed to walking alone. I'd find other people who agreed with me, but they also said, "I wouldn't dare mention it." I was the only one who would say, "We've got to stand." And they said, "Well, yes. And after you make it safe, then I'll stand, too. But you have to make it safe."

Harry Hay

#8. I'm not looking for a boyish girl. I'm looking for a boy. And I'm not looking for a girlish boy either.

Harry Hay

#9. Giving votes in exchange for ideological support. To wit: identity politics for homosexuals.

Harry Hay

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

Harry Hay

#11. 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.

Harry Hay

#12. 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.

Harry Hay

#13. 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.

Harry Hay

#14. 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.

Harry Hay

#15. 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.

Harry Hay

#16. If you look into the history of fashion, you'll discover that Gernreich was the leading name for years and the leading fashion designer both here in the United States and internationally.

Harry Hay

#17. 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.

Harry Hay

#18. Up until I was eleven years old, I thought I was the only one of my kind in the world. I couldn't find anybody else who felt as I did.

Harry Hay

#19. 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.

Harry Hay