“The stereotypical boxes don’t work for me. My story’s got some gray areas in it. And, of course, I’m sad about that but it’s the reality.”

“No one wants to immediately have 80 percent of the world hate you – that don’t understand that subject. It’s a very hard decision when you’re actually gay (to come out), because you know what you’re about to face.”

“We’re going to do three things in Congress. First, a hate-crimes bill – that shouldn’t be too hard. Next, employment discrimination. We almost got that through before, but now we can win even if we add transgender protections, which we are going to do. And finally, after the troops get home from Iraq, gays in the military. The time has come.”

“As we saw during primary season, our president-elect is not free of his own brand of hubris and arrogance, and sometimes it comes before a fall: ‘You’re likable enough, Hillary’ was the prelude to his defeat in New Hampshire. He has hit this same note again by assigning the invocation at his inauguration to the Rev. Rick Warren, the Orange County, Calif., megachurch preacher who has likened committed gay relationships to incest, polygamy and ‘an older guy marrying a child.’ Bestowing this honor on Warren was a conscious – and glib – decision by Obama to spend political capital. It was made with the certitude that a leader with a mandate can do no wrong.”