“If you want an argument for why the cause for gay visibility, dignity and equality is necessary and indeed noble, just watch that [NBC News] interview again. [Sen. Larry] Craig was seeking in that toilet stall a connection, a shard of intimacy, that the world would not give him, or that he could not give himself. No one should have to live without that intimacy and dignity – no one. Living a life like that – a deeply lonely, compromised, painful interior existence – is a very sophisticated form of hell. No human can keep it up forever. No human should have to keep it up forever. He is a hypocrite; and he made his choices. I am not going to dispute that. His voting record helped sustain the misery for others that he lived with himself. He is forever responsible for that. But he is also a victim. And to see such a victim’s pain exposed brutally in a public restroom pains me. He needs help.”

“I only officially came out to my friends when George was arrested [in a men’s room] in 1998. We’d been together for a couple of years at that point, and my friends at home in Texas were beginning to wonder. I was never able to discuss it with my parents. They died without us ever talking about it. After George was arrested, it was on the cover of every paper. My parents had reporters on their doorstep, but we still never discussed it. I’d go home for Christmas with my brother, and it was like this big, pink elephant in the middle of the room that nobody mentioned.”

“I have friends who have told me that if their partner gets sick, they wouldn’t be allowed in the hospital room because they’re not considered immediate family and they have no spousal rights. I think it’s very unfortunate that a person can’t marry who they want to marry. Everyone should take care of their own business without judging others. Like I always say, ‘Don’t judge me unless you’ve walked a mile in my shoes.’”