Quotes About Sexual Orientation

#1. When I was a teenager, the biggest heartthrob was Tab Hunter. He was in every movie out of Warner Bros. until he was exposed as gay, and his career faded. That was an object lesson. I knew I must protect my sexual orientation.

George Takei

#2. Sexuality, and sexual orientation - regardless of orientation - is just natural. An act of sex is one of the most human things.

Hozier

#3. I am sorry we promoted sexual orientation change efforts and reparative theories about sexual orientation that stigmatized parents.

Alan Chambers

#4. Just as we reject racism, sexism, ageism, and heterosexism, we reject speciesism. The species of a sentient being is no more reason to deny the protection of this basic right than race, sex, age, or sexual orientation is a reason to deny membership in the human moral community to other humans.

Gary L. Francione

#5. When Jesus describes Judgment, the famous separation of the sheep from the goats, he does not mention religious affiliation or sexual orientation or family values. He says, "I was hungry, and ye fed me not" (Matthew 25:42).

Marilynne Robinson

#6. Lesson number one: "Sexual orientation is who you go to bed with," he told Spack. "Gender identity is who you go to bed as.

Amy Ellis Nutt

#7. There was no single gay point of view. Like skin color or gender or any of those arbitrary, sometimes artificial, difference sexual orientation didn't make us all the same. But it did affect us. It had to.

Kelly J. Cogswell

#8. Maybe some people were born with the fame gene. Like race or sexual orientation or X-Men mutations, it's simply who you are, and there isn't anything you can do about it. Perhaps it's why some people are drawn to crowds and cameras while others shrink away.

Benjamin Svetkey

#9. As an actor it's your job to empathise with your character regardless of whether they have a different sexual orientation, spiritual beliefs, or anything.

Darren Criss

#10. There's no question that homophobia is rampant among the world's 1.5 billion Muslims - but that doesn't negate the fact that there are huge groups of Muslims who have easily reconciled their faith and sexual orientation, like LGBT people in other faith communities.

Reza Aslan

#11. The time has come to repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' It is the right thing to do. Every American should have the opportunity to serve their country, regardless of race, sex, creed, or sexual orientation.

Dianne Feinstein

#12. No matter what race we are, what ethnic background, sexual orientation, or what views we may have, we are all human. Unfortunately, not all humans see it that way.

Erin Gruwell

#13. It's my strong belief that when people love each other and are desirous of creating a committed relationship with each other that they should be allowed to marry, regardless of their sexual orientation.

Wendy Davis

#14. Predictions that unit cohesion could not survive honesty about sexual orientation were simply wrong. What does threaten morale arethe prolonged investigations, the questioning of friends and co-workers, the searches of barracks for magazines and letters, the witch hunts.

Anna Quindlen

#15. From day one, I have always been open about my sexual orientation.

Tammy Baldwin

#16. I am proud to state that every national Jewish organization we support enforces non-discrimination practices around sexual orientation and that more than 70 percent have written policies in place covering gender identity and expression.

Lynn Schusterman

#17. All Marines, sailors and civilian Marines, regardless of sexual orientation, are Marines first. Every Marine is a valued member of our war-fighting team.

James F. Amos

#18. I say the law should be blind to race, gender and sexual orientation, just as it claims to be blind to wealth and power. There should be no specially protected groups of any kind, except for children, the severely disabled and the elderly, whose physical frailty demands society's care.

Camille Paglia

#19. We cannot keep turning our backs on gay and lesbian Americans. I have fought too hard and too long against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation.

John E. Lewis

#20. [On gay ban in the military:] Heroism, I believe, is a trait that does not know race, color, creed, sex, or sexual orientation.

Dianne Feinstein

#21. People deal with all sorts of obstacles at work. There is the fear of failure, plus confrontations with mindless bureaucracy, with other people's egos, with your own ego, with unethical practices, with incompetence, and a wide variety of issues related to race, gender, and sexual orientation

Lodro Rinzler

#22. I think we're losing our sense of humor instead of being able to relax and laugh at ourselves. I don't care whether it's ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, or whose ox is being gored.

Betty White

#23. I want to focus on the importance of supporting marriage. I always speak about the need to respect everyone's human dignity - regardless of their sexual orientation. I think strengthening marriage is something that benefits everyone.

Salvatore J. Cordileone

#24. You'd have a better chance persuading someone to change their sexual orientation than reaching people who have rendered themselves so deaf and blind.

Epictetus

#25. I have to be honest: I don't get many, if any - I don't know that I've ever received a phone call in my office from somebody that says they've been discriminated against based on their sexual orientation.

Kevin Cramer

#26. I want a better world, I want love and harmony amongst people no matter what color you are, what race or what background you come from or sexual orientation.

Common

#27. I favor access to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Edward Kennedy

#28. Homosexuality is not because of our sexual orientation, but our eagerness and enthusiasm for experiencing something new, different and unusual.

M.F. Moonzajer

#29. It is distressing to me that we live in an age in which we still must fight to protect our civil rights as Americans, in which a hate crime perpetrated against someone based their sexual orientation can go unpunished, and in which discrimination is being written into our laws.

John Conyers

#30. A brick could be used as a Sexual Orientation Device. But I don't need it, because I know my sexual orientation - north!

Jarod Kintz

#31. I like the idea of amending the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include a ban of discrimination based on sexual orientation. It would be simple. It would be straightforward.

Donald Trump

#32. Compared with lesbians, gays seem to be more unapologetic about their sexual orientation. The former must not have balls.

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

#33. The meritocracy offered liberation from the unjust hierarchies of race, gender, and sexual orientation, but swapped in their place a new hierarchy based on the notion that people are deeply unequal in ability and drive.

Christopher L. Hayes

#34. If you are fortunate in life, age and knowledge breed compassion. And as I have gotten older, I came to understand, that a person's sexual orientation has absolutely nothing to do with their ability to be a good parent.

Ronnie Musgrove

#35. Equal protection under the law - for race, religion, gender or sexual orientation - should not be subject to the most popular sentiments of the day.

Cory Booker

#36. I've always opposed gay marriage. I believe that we should provide equal rights to people regardless of their sexual orientation but I do not believe that marriage should be between two people of the same gender.

Mitt Romney

#37. When we talk about feminism - equality without apology for all - we can't be talking about for all white women or all highly educated women but all women, regardless of color, class, creed, sexual orientation or identity.

Christine Pelosi

#38. I am opposed to special rights for gays just as I am opposed to special rights for heterosexuals or smokers. I can attest to the fact that sexual orientation is not immutable and I urge the city council to vote no on this amendment.

Alan Chambers

#39. I'm a Christian woman, but I believe in human rights. I do not go into people's bedrooms. I appoint people based on their capabilities, not their sexual orientation.

Portia Simpson-Miller

#40. All young people, regardless of sexual orientation or identity, deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential.

Harvey Milk

#41. In four of five generations, sexual orientation will disappear and we'll just fall in love with people

Brad Boney

#42. We need to guarantee equal rights and civil rights and say that, here in America, workers have the right to organize - women have the right to choose - and justice belongs to everyone regardless of race or gender or sexual orientation.

John F. Kerry

#43. So when I was about 13 or 14, I realized I was attracted to women and then made the assumption that I was a lesbian, and didn't realize that that wasn't the case. It was the fact that I was a man and a heterosexual man. The issue wasn't my sexual orientation, but rather my gender identity.

Chaz Bono

#44. Scouting ought to be about building character, not about sex. Period. Precious few parents enroll their boys in the Scouts to get a crash course in sexual orientation.

Rick Perry

#45. Women will not simply be mainstreamed into the polluted stream. Women are changing the stream, making it clean and green and safe for all - every gender, race, creed, sexual orientation, age, and ability.

Bella Abzug

#46. It would take me the better part of growing up to understand that intimacy, more than sex or even sexual orientation, was the universal battleground, and no easier for straight than gay.

Paul Monette

#47. Hate crimes based on sexual orientation are among the three top reported hate crimes after race and religion, ... Our laws should not ignore that reality.

Janet Reno

#48. Freedom has been privatized - it is how you dress, what your sexual orientation is, choosing your own life. That's fine. But that is not what Thomas Jefferson was talking about.

Eric Foner

#49. What's happening outside church walls is happening inside church walls. It is all part of the human experience. Ignorance and lack of education about sex, sexual orientation, gender identities, and human sexuality in general have led to harmful assumptions and poor pastoral counsel.

Kathy Baldock

#50. I believe that those who promote discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or any other grounds are gravely mistaken about the values that make our nation strong. I will continue to move my administration in the direction of compassion, acceptance, and understanding.

William J. Clinton

#51. I don't judge people by their sexual orientation or the color of their skin, so I find it really hard to identify someone by saying that they're a gay person or a black person or a Jewish person.

Diana Ross

#52. Whether sexual orientation can change or not, hearts can change and turn any sexual orientation into an occasion for the glory of Christ. Those with same-sex attraction glorify Christ through sexual abstinence and through the enrichment of significant Christ-exalting relationships in other ways.

John Piper

#53. How can you go wrong with two people in love? If a good boy loves a good girl, good. If a good boy loves another good boy, good. And if a good girl loves the goodness in good boys and good girls, then all you have is more goodness, and goodness has nothing to do with sexual orientation.

Fiona Apple

#54. The majority of my fans have been amazing & supportive. But I am in shock and ashamed of many of my 'fans' who are standing firm in their stance that I am 'less than' them because of my sexual orientation. To those who feel this way: I gladly show you the door and wish you well on your journey.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson

#55. The criteria for serving one's country should be competence, courage and willingness to serve. When we deny people the chance to serve because of their sexual orientation, we deprive them of their rights of citizenship, and we deprive our armed forces the service of willing and capable Americans.

Dianne Feinstein

#56. We live in a country where people still get beaten to death because of their sexual orientation.

Peter Krause

#57. We don't really know where human sexual orientations come from yet. What we do know is that the evidence we have that sexual orientation includes an innate component doesn't seem to point to the existence of simple 'gay genes' and 'straight genes.'

Alice Dreger

#58. Every member of Congress is sent to Washington to represent all of their constituents, regardless of their age, race, social standing, or sexual orientation, and I believe that America should be a place where everybody can dream, and nobody is left out.

Mark Takano

#59. I wanted to create something that was quite edgy and belonged to me. It wasn't about my sexual orientation, because I'm heterosexual. It was saying that appearance is just temporary, and I want to be as strong as a man.

Annie Lennox

#60. In terms of sexual orientation I don't really feel I've changed. I don't feel there was a hidden part of my sexuality that I wasn't aware of. I'd been with men all my life, and I'd never fallen in love with a woman. But when I did, it didn't seem so strange.

Cynthia Nixon

#61. Imagine living in a state where businesses can legally refuse to serve people based on their sexual orientation. Where parents can force their children to undergo conversion therapy to 'cure' them of their 'homosexual tendencies.'

Lynn Schusterman

#62. Tolerance says I am just going to stomach your right to be different. That if you disappear from the face of the earth, I am no better or worse off. But love - love knows that every American has worth and value, no matter what their background, race, religion, or sexual orientation.

Cory Booker

#63. Thirty years ago, in 1976, the notion of organized activity to combat discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity was an extremely controversial one.

Robert Brady

#64. I feel very deeply about the need to respect and tolerate people of different social - or sexual orientation. But at the same time, I believe marriage should be preserved as an institution for one man and one woman.

Mitt Romney

#65. A state that houses the NCAA headquarters. Quite frankly, if Indiana doesn't say that they're going to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, the NCAA needs to move out of Indiana.

Dannel Malloy

#66. There's no race, no religion, no class system, no color - nothing - no sexual orientation, that makes us better than anyone else. We're all deserving of love.

Sandra Bullock

#67. No matter your race, creed, sexual orientation, or political affiliation, we protect and serve. Because you could get dead.'" "Even if you were an asshole. We added an addendum." On

J.D. Robb

#68. They're not trying to prevent Hollywood from making movies. They're asking that the most powerful image-building machinery in the world stop grinding out killer dykes and twisted homo sex fiends as if sexual orientation had anything to do with criminal behavior.

Roger Ebert

#69. The battle rages eternal, though the race, religion, gender or sexual orientation of those discriminated against changes regularly. Maybe man's need for a scapegoat is genetically programmed into him.

Josh Lanyon

#70. One of the things I regret is that too often in our society a person's whole identity is shaped by their sexuality, or by their sexual orientation. In good Catholic eyes, a person's sexual orientation does not matter.

Vincent Nichols

#71. In a perfect world, I don't think it [one's sexual orientation] is anyone else's business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted.

Anderson Cooper

#72. I absolutely believe in assimilation. I don't believe I'm any different from straight people. My wants and needs are the same as theirs. I don't look at sexual orientation as that big of a deal. It's just an orientation.

Chaz Bono

#73. The sexual orientation of my parents has had zero effect on the content of my character.

Zach Wahls

#74. I've never denied my sexual orientation. I just don't make a point of it. It isn't what I do. Clearly, I'm known for the work I've done on trade and Social Security.

Jim Kolbe

#75. Same-sex couples should have equal rights to full benefits both state and federal level. I support repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell because it hasn't worked and military should based on conduct not your sexual orientation

Hillary Rodham Clinton

#76. I confused gender identity with sexual orientation. Your gender identity is about who you are, how you feel, the sex that you feel yourself to be. Sexual orientation is who you're attracted to.

Chaz Bono

#77. A banner hung over the break-room door, facing out so any who came in would see the sentiment:
NO MATTER YOUR RACE, CREED, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, OR POLITICAL AFFILIATION, WE PROTECT AND SERVE, BECAUSE YOU COULD GET DEAD.

J.D. Robb

#78. Given that sexual orientation is innate and that we are all, in theological terms, children of God, to deny access to some sacraments based on sexuality is as wrong as denying access to some sacraments based on race or gender.

Jon Meacham

#79. When you oppress people either by gender, by race, by sexual orientation, when you do that and the doors become ajar, they will fly open and they will come and they have.

Billie Jean King

#80. In our hearts and in our laws, we must treat all our people with fairness and dignity, regardless of their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation ...

William J. Clinton

#81. If you want my personal attitude, I would tell you that I don't care about a person's sexual orientation.

Vladimir Putin

#82. Any deep-rooted prejudice against others, such as homophobia or misogyny, would be grounds for rejecting a candidate for the priesthood, but not their sexual orientation.

Timothy Radcliffe

#83. Although we have not assigned God a sexual orientation, a height, or eye color, we have thought nothing of assigning a gender and a religion (God always belongs to the same one we do).

Rosalie Maggio

#84. All young people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, need someone who's got their back.

James Lecesne

#85. My morality and faith are choices. My sexual orientation however isn't.

Anthony Venn-Brown

#86. The players who have reached out to me and told me about their sexual orientation, it just means a lot.

Michael Sam

#87. I do not believe that the people of Ontario judge their leaders on the basis of race, sexual orientation, colour or religion. I don't believe they hold that prejudice in their hearts.

Kathleen Wynne

#88. The term 'sexual orientation' ... is basically a code word for homosexuality.

Scott Lively

#89. These are men and women who are willing to risk their lives in defense of their country. And the fact that their orientation - sexual orientation's been held against them is a blot on our nation's reputation.

Dick Durbin

#90. Insistence on having a sexual orientation in sex is about defending the status quo, maintaining sex differences and the sexual hierarchy; whereas resistance to sexual orientation, regimentation is more about where we need to be going.

John Stoltenberg

#91. The most recent studies, ... both behavioral and biological, indicate one's sexual orientation is genetic, something one is born with.

Peter McWilliams

#92. I oppose same-sex marriage but I would advance equal rights in employment for gay and lesbian people. I appointed a few judges who were gay and I had few people in my cabinet that I found out were gay. I never asked peoples sexual orientation.

Mitt Romney

#93. As a liberal, I am morally obligated to be pragmatic. What good do I do poor people, elderly people, people who are being discriminated against because of their sexual orientation if I'm not realistic about accomplishing something.

Barney Frank

#94. As far as my own sexual orientation, I'm only seventeen years old and as of right now, I'm straight, but who knows what's to come?

Judith E. Snow

#95. We hope we are moving toward a world where sexual orientation is not an issue, because we hate the idea of a gay ghetto. I think that it's a real shame that people become restricted by their sexuality or define their whole lives by their sexuality.

Neil Tennant

#96. It is capitalist America that produced the modern independent woman. Never in history have women had more freedom of choice in regard to dress, behavior, career, and sexual orientation.

Camille Paglia

#97. All human beings bear God's image and must be respected for what each person is. Therefore, no external description of one's being, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, can properly be used as the basis for either rejection or discrimination.

John Shelby Spong

#98. It doesn't matter what color, sex, religion, age, sexual orientation, etc., everyone should have the same freedoms and liberties.

Lance Bass

#99. People have evolved into something selfish, greedy and intolerant. People are unaccepting, because of religion, race, gender, sexual orientation ... I've seen it in punk clubs, and I've seen it in the world.

Gerard Way

#100. An America where every person, no matter their race, their disability or their sexual orientation realizes the full promise of equality that is our birthright as Americans.

Bernie Sanders