I Didn't Say It ...

Wade Davis Jr., openly gay former NFL player and executive director of the You Can Play Project, on battling internalized homophobia before and after coming out:

“We raise young boys to wear a mask of toughness in order to be a man, and we rob them of their childhood and their innocence. And sport is one of the many vehicles parents choose to help them put on this mask. [As] little boys we learn that being labeled ‘tough’ grants you a certain type of social capital and being thought of as weak or queer is suicidal, both athletically and socially. … I was never taught how to be myself or love myself. ... I’m standing gay. I’m walking gay. I’m running gay. Would you just stop being so gay?! That was wasted motion. Most of my life in fact was wasted motion. I would be giving up so much power by being gay. And I’d be violating the very essence that I was taught of what being a man was. So what is the cost of always wearing a mask, what is the cost of never being yourself? The cost is never really loving yourself, and never allowing someone else to love all of you.”

That cost is too high; too many young lives lost because of the stigma of being gay, especially athletic and gay.

Why don’t we teach our children to love themselves and each other first, and then teach them how to be athletes … artists … doctors … dancers … whatever?

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Bill Maher, on the GOP's insistence on ignoring facts:

“It hurts their feelings when we insult their values with our facts. ... I can’t honestly say I respect your view that the world is 5,000 years old because it’s 2016. If Sarah Palin claims nighttime is when Jesus puts a blanket over the sun and I disagree, does that make me smug? I’m sorry you find it irritating when liberals point out that global warming exists, or that racism exists, or that gay people exist. But here’s the thing. You guys were wrong about all that. Really. Check the climate science. Check the dashboard camera on the police car. Check your pastor’s internet history.”

Word.

But Republicans hate facts when fear and misinformation will do.

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RuPaul, on Nightline, on why RuPaul’s Drag Race will never be normal:

“I don’t think the show could ever go mainstream because drag is the antithesis of the matrix. You know, the matrix says, ‘Pick an identity and stick with it. Because I want to sell you some beer and shampoo and I need you to stick with what you are so I’ll know how to market it to you.’ Drag is the opposite. Drag says, ‘Identity is a joke.' [And] I think that I haven’t been accepted in mainstream media outlets like ‘The Tonight Show’ or ‘Ellen’ or the late-night shows because the only way they could actually have a conversation with me is to make fun of me, or if they could somehow make a joke about what I’m doing.”

Instead of making a joke, and giggling like fools about men in dresses, understand the art form, the talent, the drive it takes to be a drag queen; the guts it takes.

The charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent.

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Bryan Hawn, social media sensation and fitness expert on his well-endowed rear end: 

“When you’re six-foot-one, weigh 185 pounds, and have a V-shaped torso that tapers into a 30-inch waist and a shelfed-out backside, a lot of people assume it’s all genetic. In fact, my whole body was actually built from a stick. In high school, I was just a lanky, 145-pound kid who loved musical theater, soccer jocks, and Mark Walhberg’s Calvin Klein ads.”

I, too, love musical theater and Marky Mark’s underwear ads … and Hawn’s rear-end.

Just sayin’.

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