I don't think it's exaggeration or hyperbole to say that Pedro Zamora changed the world.
— Wilson Cruz
When you were a teenager, everything's kind of drawn in primary colors; everything's big, and everything's life or death.
It's one thing to be sitting in a classroom and have a teacher tell you how to treat other people; it's a whole other thing to watch, week after week, somebody's life spelled out to you in an emotional way: That lesson is something that will stay with you forever.
For more than two decades, GLAAD has combatted anti-LGBT images in the media and changed the national conversation about LGBT people.
My dad is now an incredibly important ally of mine. I'm so impressed with him. He's a hero to me because he put love and his family first.
If you were to turn on the TV in 1986, '87, you wouldn't see anybody having, I guess, a low-to-middle-income person of color experience. And you definitely wouldn't have a young LGBT person or their story told. The experience of being invisible in our culture has ramifications that I don't think any of us can really understand.
Sometimes we make progress in leaps. And sometimes we make them in small steps.
I think about a young person who is sitting at home, 13 or 14, a person of color, possibly questioning their sexuality, and watching Dr. Hugh Culber and saying, 'I'm a part of an ideal future that we could work towards.' We're planting seeds in the minds of young people to say, 'Your possibilities are limitless.'
I learned so much about love from the movies. For a couple of hours, I would allow myself to dream about love and a life that, for me, ordinarily, felt out of reach. So, it was with deep gratitude that I watched the drama 'Call Me by Your Name,' knowing what a beautiful teacher it would be for boys like me.
I'm aware that I'm playing one of the first LGBT characters on 'Star Trek' in the first relationship, so there's a responsibility that comes with that. I'm aware of that.
I was 19, 20. I didn't know what to do. I knew one thing: I never saw myself on TV or anyone like me, and I wanted to be that for someone else. I think the most courageous thing I did was ask for help.
I feel really fortunate and grateful that not only do I get to do what I love, but I get to do it and serve a conversation that I feel is necessary culturally. The fact that I get to bring those two passions together is amazing to me - that I get to use my art in order to inform my activism and vice versa!
I don't think that there's any shame at all in doing what you have to do in order to survive, to make money while you continue to pursue your dreams.
I hope that upon this scorched earth we have planted the seeds of ideas that will bear the fruit of more diverse and inclusive stories that include people of color in the LGBT community.
ADCOLOR is an incredible organization that not only empowers people from all backgrounds to rise up but also to give back.
I am honored to be receiving the Point Courage Award.
Steve Warren's work and career have opened doors for out professionals across the entertainment industry. In addition to advocating for LGBT people, he has continuously mobilized a large base of high-profile allies to help bring about social change.
The seeds of marriage equality... were planted on MTV.
The thing about me and school was that as much as I felt that I didn't belong, as long as I was on a stage or dancing, that's where I excelled the most, felt worthy.
I love being an actor.
When you're 14, 15, the most important thing in your life should be education, because that's what's going to set you up for success as an adult. So if coming out now will hinder your education, maybe we take some time to think about whether the time is right or not. Those are my concern.
When I came out, it didn't go well. My dad kicked me out. I ended up sleeping in my car.
When I was a teenager, in the '80s, it was 'Dynasty.' It was 'Beverly Hills, 90210.' And those were fantasies. Those weren't reflective of my experience. And I think we all want that; we all want to see ourselves, our story told, something to relate to, to help us and know that we're not freaks, that our experiences aren't odd.
When we talk about LGBT characters on TV we're talking about the entire rainbow, and that includes trans people, and that includes non-binary people, people of color, women, differently-abled people. There is so much opportunity for storytelling there, and I hope that we continue to see more of that.
'Call Me by Your Name' does not have a political agenda. It is not a 'cause' film. It is a simple and beautifully shot story about a same-sex relationship that exists in a very tiny Italian village.
I've always been drawn to love stories. Growing up, I would devour films like 'Moonstruck,' 'Ghost,' 'Love and Basketball,' and 'Love, Jones,' replacing the lovers in my imagination with two men.
I consider myself an 'actorvist.' When I say that, what I mean is that I use my art to inform my activism and to be my activism sometimes, but I also use my activism in my art.
When people ask me for advice about when to come out, it's really about, before you do that, building a circle of support that can strengthen you through that experience. For me, it was my friends. There were people on 'My So-Called Life' that really helped guide me.
It's important to take leaps of faith.
When I got the appetite for more and more theatre, all I could think of was trying to get back to New York.
I remember watching the premiere of the pilot episode of 'Next Gen' when I was a teenager.
It takes a certain kind of person who loves 'Star Trek' to bring it to life.
It's important that we continue to uplift and strengthen our LGBTQ youth who are the future of our community and remind them that their voices are heard.
What's disheartening for me and to all of us in GLAAD is when it comes to major studio films, LGBT people are basically invisible. And when we do show up, it's largely a part of comedies as carictatures to service a joke that's at the expense of the character.
I think people come home, and they turn on the TV and don't necessarily want a mirror in their face. They want to escape.
I came out to my dad in Christmas of '94.
Adam Lambert's continued success as one of the world's best-selling pop stars shows LGBT people that they can be themselves and make it in a mainstream industry that many feel unfairly rejects them.
When I think about people coming out, especially young people, my first concern is, 'Are you safe? Is this a safe time? Are you in a safe place?' Do you have a network of people outside of your parents you can go to if this doesn't go as well as you hoped?
You cannot overstate, I don't think, the impact of a show like 'Glee' on a generation.
Let me speak for myself: I think I wanted to see people who looked like me on TV. I wanted to see people who had similar experiences as I had, growing up. There was nobody on television when I was a teenager who I could relate to.
The work that needs to be done now is to diversify the picture of LGBTQ people so that people can see that we come from all races, different genders; we have trans people.
When I was first starting out in the industry in the early '90s, gay love stories were relegated to limited-release films that were hidden deep in the back of Blockbuster video stores.
As a fan of the franchise, I count myself among the countless LGBTQ fans who have longed to see themselves and our relationships depicted on 'Star Trek.'
I like to bring a level of vulnerability and real humanity to the characters I play when appropriate, and I feel like Dr. Culber lives pretty comfortably in that vulnerable world, but he's a professional first.
I remember just calling myself gay was a big step for me, and I remember being in the bathroom brushing my teeth, testing out to myself in the mirror, saying, 'I am gay,' and seeing if the world was going to stop or if the ceiling would fall in on me.
My advice would be to look at the things you do to make money as ways to inform your work in the end. If our work is to study the human condition, most humans that we are going to be playing aren't going to be artists, so go out and, as I did, learn what it's like to have a 9-to-5 job... Think of it as character study.
I had no idea what being on stage would be like or how I'd react to the applause. I didn't think I deserved their applause. Then I realized I'd done something to make them feel something. That made it okay. But it was weird. A nice weird.
It sounds corny, but I wanted to be the change I wanted to see in the world. I used to have that on my notebook in school.
All I ever wanted to do when I was a kid was be in a Broadway musical and to be in 'Star Trek,' and I can finally say I've done that.
President Clinton's support of the LGBT community and recognition that DOMA, the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, is unconstitutional and should be struck down shows that the political landscape continues to change in favor of LGBT equality. Leaders and allies like President Clinton are critical to moving our march for equality forward.
