I Didn't Say It ...

Alan Cumming, actor and The Traitors’ host, receiving a Doctor of Laws (LLD) in recognition of his multi-decade service to the arts from the University of St Andrews in Scotland:

“Last week St Andrews University made me a Doctor of Laws (LLD). I sat on the stage of the Younger Hall and watched hundreds of students as they stepped up to receive their degrees and saw pride and achievement and fear flicker across their faces. It made me think of my graduation from drama school forty (!) years ago and so I decided to say something to those students that I wish I’d heard all those years ago. I told them to always keep learning, that their formal education may now be over but to try to always stay open to the possibilities and experiences that life is going to fling at them. I told them to always be curious. I see people in life stop being curious and they just stop in general; they atrophy before your eyes. And I told them to always protest! Protesting is a part of your education too! It’s taking what you have learned and analyzed and combining it with your passion and then sharing it with the world. Always be curious! Always keep learning! Always be open to new people and new things. And always protest!”

Never stop learning; otherwise it all just stops.

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Gavin Newsom, California Democrat governor, telling voters that they "have the power" to end his disastrous presidency during the mid-term elections:

“It’s not what happens to us, it’s how we respond to it. And our opportunity presents itself anew. In 18 months, you have the power to end [The Felon]’s presidency. We’ll have to deal with the tweets; we’ll have to deal with the attacks and the bullying. But the legislative agenda [will] effectively [be] over. You have that power in these midterms. [He] decided to send hundreds and hundreds of military troops into [MacArthur] Park, into the playground, in the middle of the day, where kids … were at summer camp. Not one arrest was made. But what he was doing—he wanted to make a point. Cruelty is the point. Cruelty is the point. I say this with love in my heart—with love in my heart—but love for my party and love for my country. Do you remember his response to the disaster in California? He blamed every single person [but]—not a peep of blame in Texas.”

Newsom got a rousing reception in … wait for it … it’s epic … Deeply Red rural South Carolina, by speaking truth, simple basic truths about The Felon.

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Pete Buttigieg, former Secretary of Transportation, on the GOP’s "big, beautiful" federal budget bill:

“We’re hearing that the House has passed the megabill after it got through the Republican Senate. Now it’s on its way to [The Felon]’s desk, and he’s going to sign it. When he does, he will create some of the biggest tax breaks for billionaires in history, even more wealth to the wealthiest Americans. And the way they’re paying for it is to cut health care for working-class Americans, to cut food that would go to veterans and children in this country. To shut down rural hospitals and make an entire generation worse off. And they’re managing to increase the national debt and deficit while they do it. This is the decisive, once and for all answer to what the president and his party are about. You know, it was fashionable for Washington commentators for a while to say that this was a new, different, populist, working-class Republican Party. Now it has been demonstrated decisively that that was all bullshit. That they’re still all about making the wealthy even wealthier at the expense of working Americans. If there’s any good news in all of this, it’s that this is still a democracy. Even now, even with all of the damage that [The Felon] has done to our republic, there is no king in this country, which means we the people will have the last word. And it is up to us, the American people, to respond politically and say that it is unacceptable to harm the majority of Americans to make the very wealthiest a little better off.”

The bill extends the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans yet slashes $1 trillion from Medicaid; it includes cuts to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program [SNAP] which helps low-income Americans buy food, as well as the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Planned Parenthood. It will take health care coverage or subsidies away from an estimated 17 million people over the next decade, while adding $4 trillion to the national debt during that period.

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Zohran Mamdani, Democrat candidate for mayor of New York City, taking on The Felon’s bigotry and stupidity:

“Yesterday [The Felon] said that I should be arrested, deported, denaturalized … he said those things less so because of who I am and more so because he wants to distract from what I fight for … if this is what [The Felon] feels comfortable saying about the Democratic nominee for New York City, imagine what [he] says about immigrants whose names they don’t even know.”

He’s exposing the fear-based campaigning of The Felon and the GOP; many of whom are suggesting he be deported because he’s Muslim. It makes me have to repeat something I have been saying since 9/11: Muslims are not terrorists, terrorists are terrorists, and the terrorists are in power and rounding up people of color, and denying aid to the poorest among us, and keeping women subjugated to the will of white politicians.

The GOP and The Felon and his entire regime are the terrorists.

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Robert Garcia, out Democrat Representative from California, and member of the powerful House Oversight Committee announces plans to investigate The Felon’s pet fascist Stephen Miller:

"Essentially dehumanizing immigrants so that they’re less than human is Stephen Miller doing what he loves to do, which is be, essentially, the biggest piece of shit in this country. Stephen Miller should be ashamed of the way he is acting. I can’t even believe he’s from our state. One thing I’ve told people is that you can rest assured that if you are right now causing the level of harm that the Stephen Millers of the world are, that these ICE agents are, you are going to be held accountable. We’re not going to forget the harm that you’re causing to people and our government, and these folks are going to be held accountable. What’s happening right now, it’s so inhumane and gross. As an immigrant myself, who came here as a young kid, it’s just not the America that so many immigrants come to, to actually be a part of, to fight for, to fight for citizenship. We’ve got to continue winning in the courts, and that’s going to continue. And the other piece of it, people’s reaction, the protesting, the anger, the rising up against these actions also is having an effect. And you’re seeing that, I mean, what’s happening in LA, which was widely, as you know, mostly peaceful. The protests are energizing the population and the public to stand up against us, and we are seeing the impact it’s having on the Republicans electorally."

If Democrats take back control of the House in the midterm elections, Garcia will have even more power to hold these monsters accountable. Keep up the pressure, protest, and vote!

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Harvey Fierstein, accepting his 2025 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement at The Tony’s last month:

“Don't make Mommy cry. Oh, thank you so much. You gorgeous people, I have to tell you, since I got that call, something's been on my mind. This has all happened by accident. See, if it had gone to plan, I should now be a retired high school art teacher. But what happened was my freshman year of High School of Art and Design, this kid in my class said that his mother was starting a community theatre in Brooklyn and needed kids to come and make posters. I figured, ‘Why not?’ I don't know if it was the fumes from the magic markers, but I entered the basement of a Unitarian church in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and I found my community. Here were people, mostly adults, who saw this odd, chubby, recently bar mitzvahed boy (who'd put a towel on his head and lip sync Broadway show tunes into his bedroom mirror) and without hesitation or judgment just welcomed him in. I painted scenery, I ran lights, I pulled curtains. And by the age of 15, I was on the board of directors of The Gallery Players, a theatre that still exists in Brooklyn. From there, I moved to the world of experimental theatre in La MaMa, then Off Broadway. By then, I was writing and acting in my own shows, and I was always, always accepted just as I was. And then suddenly, well, not so suddenly, but you can get the rest of the story from my best-selling New York Times autobiography, I Was Better Last Night, at your favorite bookseller. So suddenly, I found myself on Broadway with Torch Song Trilogy. It was only then that I was cautioned, ‘If you want a career, keep your personal life to yourself.’ My answer was, ‘Have you seen Torch Song Trilogy?’ It was 1982 and not only did I arrive on Broadway, but so did AIDS. This was no time to hide. We needed to go to war, and it was a war that cost us much too dearly. I might never really understand how I survived those years, or the years that led me to be standing on this stage accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award. But what I find most humbling is the thought that somehow my journey means something to you. There's no way to really thank even a tiny percentage of the people responsible. No one does theatre alone, but I must call out my mother, who dragged us to opera and ballet and Broadway as often as she could afford. And my brother, who's sitting over there, used my shows as a personality test for his dates: If they freaked out seeing his drag queen brother, they were history. But I'd like to leave you with this thought, as many of you know, there is nothing quite like bathing in the applause of a curtain call, but when I bow, I bow to the audience with gratitude, knowing that without them, I might as well be lip syncing show tunes in my bedroom mirror. And so I dedicate this award to the people in the dark and offer my most profound thanks to all of you, my community.”

It’s all community, and we when stand with one another, and work with one another, and support one another, we win.

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I Didn't Say It ...

Pete Buttigieg, out military vet and former Transportation Secretary, on The Felon’s “slash-and-burn” proposal to cut 80,000 employees from the Department of Veterans Affairs [VA]:

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“How can we not be pissed off when we see them coming after the workers who take care of our veterans, many of whom are veterans themselves? They’re going to slash-and-burn so much of the VA. [But] this could be an empowering moment for so many veterans, so many families and so many Americans .There’s a lot of folks in Congress who are incredibly nervous about this, a lot of congressional Republicans who know better, but … [who can at] least can be pushed, to stand up to this sort of thing.”

The very people who protect us, he wants to punish; the very job he ran from, crying that his feet hurt, he doesn’t think worthy of respect.

He cares about rich white people, Putin and hookers pissing on him; that’s all.

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Anthony Mackie, Captain America, on  playing gay roles during his career and how it helped him to be more empathetic toward gay people, including one of his own brothers:

“Growing up in the south in the 90s & 80s, you grew up homophobic, sexist and racist….that’s just a fact. So when I got to school, my roommate was gay, like I didn’t know how to deal with that. Like my brother is gay. So being a man, I used my art to better myself. I played Perry [Brother to Brother] so that I could understand my brother better, so I could understand my friends better. Going to art school, a bunch of my friends were gay. But with me, I needed to figure out what was my hold up, what was my insecurity about that. And once I played that role, I realized everybody deserves to be loved. It’s not my job to say who you love or who should love you, If you’re loved, I’m happy for you … So Perry was more a statement piece for me, with love and admiration for my brother, with the appreciation and respect for my friends, for that culture. I think it made me a better actor because I had to go so far outside the box.”

A favorite saying of mine: when you know better, you do better. And Mackie has learned better.

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Sarah McBride, Democratic Delaware Congresswoman and the first out transgender member of Congress, on the GOP being fixated on her gender identity instead of substantive policy issues affecting Americans:

“I appear to live rent-free in the minds of some of my Republican colleagues. I wish that they would spend even a fraction of the time that they spend thinking about me, thinking about how to lower the costs for American families. I wish they would spend a fraction of the time that they spend thinking about me, figuring out how to make government actually work better, rather than making it work worse in order to prove that government can’t work. The Republican Party is obsessed with culture war issues. It is weird, and it is bizarre. And the American people deserve serious legislators, serious elected officials who are focused on bringing people together to deliver real results for the American people. Not to play games, and not to engage in schoolyard taunts. We will not take a lecture on decorum from a party that incited an insurrection.”

Her remarks came just two days after Texas GOP Representative Keith Self, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, repeatedly misgendered her during a hearing,  calling her “Mister McBride.” The exchange prompted an immediate rebuke from Massachusetts Democrat Bill Keating who demanded a correction. Instead of apologizing, Self abruptly adjourned the hearing.

It's what the GOP does when confronted; they run off like rats.

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Ben Whishaw, out actor, on juggling very different projects—a spy in Black Doves, voicing Paddington Bear, and rehearsing Samuel Beckett’s "Waiting for Godot”—in an effort to avoid being pigeonholed:

“It was one of the strangest gear switches ever, but it is nice to inhabit so many different worlds. Somewhere in your mind, you have to refuse to be categorized, you have to keep very free. People love to categorize and file you somewhere and you have to really resist that ... This is something I’ve been thinking a lot about. I’m quite fascinated in how much has changed in the 20 years since I started acting. There were not roles like this [playing an openly gay hit man] … there were not depictions of queer people like this. Now you can play someone who’s not straight, and not that it’s irrelevant, but it’s not their defining characteristic—that person might have many other interesting facets. And those people can be the center of a story that appeals to a large audience … that’s new! I remember it was conveyed to me clearly that you should keep it a bit hush-hush that you’re gay and not to make much of a thing about it. Even though I wasn’t hiding it from my friends or the people in my life ... if you wanted to get roles, that was what was required of you. And I think that was it—it was a pretty tiny proportion. I can’t think of anyone who was my age. So I do really want to acknowledge the bravery and brilliance of those people, because it wasn’t nothing that we had them to look up to. And I’m grateful that we’ve moved on from that time, because it felt horrible.”

Whishaw has always marched to the beat of his own drummer, even as an out actor, trying to stay true to himself.

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Greg Casar, Democrat Congressman, on what the Democrats need to be doing:

“Today the biggest split among Democrats is between those who want to stand and fight and those who want to play dead. House Democrats united to stand and fight. Too many Senate Democrats played dead. We need more leaders from  the ‘Stand and Fight’ wing of the Democratic party.”

Stand and Fight. You work for us and we demand that you fight … or we will vote you out.

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Harvey Fierstein, playwright, actor, out gay man and live performer, on being banned from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts:

"A few folks have written to ask how I feel about [The Felon]'s takeover of The Kennedy Center. How do you think I feel? The shows I've written are now banned from being performed in our premiere American theater. Those shows, most of which have been performed there in the past, include Kinky Boots, La Cage aux Folles, Torch Song Trilogy, Hairspray, Safe Sex, Casa Valentina, Spookhouse, A Catered Affair, The Sissy Duckling, Bella Bella, and more. I have been in the struggle for our civil rights for more than 50 years only to watch them snatched away by a man who actually couldn't care less. He does this stuff only to placate the religious right, so they'll look the other way as he savages our political system for his own glorification. He attacks free speech. He attacks the free press. He attacks America's allies. His only allegiance is to himself—the golden calf. My fellow Americans I warn you—this is NOT how it begins. This is how freedom ENDS! [The Felon] may have declared 'woke' as dead in America. We must prove him wrong. WAKE THE HELL UP!!!!!"

Resist.

Speak up.

Stand up.

Vote.

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I Didn't Say It ...

Matthew Breen, editor-in-chief of The Advocate, accepting his Trailblazer Honor and speaking on Orlando: 

“I’ve got something to say to those who would do us harm; to those rightwing politicians and religious fanatics [The Advocate] too often covers: You cannot relentlessly discriminate against us and dehumanize us and then stand back and act shocked when someone takes your ideas into his black rotted heart and slaughters us in those places where we gather for community. We are not interested in your prayers unless they are followed up with action. And we do not accept that living in this country means lining up for a massive game of Russian roulette. There is no justification on earth for giving madmen access to mass murder machines. So listen up you Mitch McConnell’s, Pat McCrery’s, Wayne, LaPierre’s, Family Research Council, and all you bigots who methodically work to keep us down and keep the madmen armed, ‘You have f**ked with the wrong group of people.’ In case you have not been paying attention these last fifty years, this community is strong, resilient, very effective and mightily pissed off. We will not permit your insane brand of fundamentalism and we’re coming for your assault rifles, too.”

Words have meaning; words have consequences.

Sticks and stones; words hurt sometimes worse than sticks and stones.

They hurt like bullets.

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Bob the Drag Queen, on [t]Rump]s popularity:

"Trump is racist, and the reason why he's popular right now is because he lets a lot of people act racist without saying the word racist. He's a racist, and his supporters are racist, and they get to be racist without saying they're racist. I said racist, right? … RA-CIST. … Racist. … Racist."

No matter how he spins it, Donald The Rump is a racist.

We don’t need more hate in this country.

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Pope Francis, on the Church and The Gays:

“I think that the Church not only should apologize … to a gay person whom it offended but it must also apologize to the poor as well, to the women who have been exploited, to children who have been exploited by (being forced to) work. It must apologize for having blessed so many weapons. The Church teaches that homosexual tendencies are not sinful but homosexual acts are, and that homosexuals should try to be chaste. The question is: if a person who has that condition, who has good will, and who looks for God, who are we to judge?”

Oh, Pope Frankie got all kinds of Gay Praise for that first sentence, but read on: “homosexual tendencies” aren’t bad, but “homosexual acts” are; he wants us to be gay but not act gay, not love, not marry, not raise children.

He can go screw himself.

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Harvey Fierstein, accepting his Trailblazer Honor and speaking on Orlando: 

“These last two weeks have been very hard for all of us, especially for gay people who, as soon as we heard the news, we knew, we knew who took out that gun and shot; we knew it wasn’t something to do with Islam, we knew it was Hate, but hate turned inward, hate so strong, hate that destroyed so completely that his soul was gone … completely gone. And all he could was cry out; and then, instead of knowing there was someone he could cry out to, to say, ‘Help me! Help me be myself! Tell me I’m all right,’ he took a gun to prove he was a man and destroyed hundreds of lives. It wasn’t just those forty-nine people … it was all of their friends’, all of their families’ lives destroyed because someone told him he could not be him. We live our lives and they are short, little, silly lives, they really are, they go so fast, and history’s being made in every moment. Open your eyes; you are part of history, every moment. You either participate, or you don’t that’s your choice, but you’re part of history. All you need to do is show up. And don’t lie. I’ve seen people go to gay marches because they were angry; I’ve seen people go to gay marches because they were proud; I’ve seen people go to gay marches to get laid. It doesn’t matter. Show up.  Show up. Now you are surrounded with love, now you are surrounded with acceptance. So take advantage of it Put your arms around each other, tell each other, ‘I have your back no matter what.’ Show up. Show up for life. Make history.”

As that other Harvey, Harvey Milk, said, so many many years ago: we all need to come out, and come out to everyone, all the time, every day.

The more we are out, the stronger we are, and the less afraid people will be of us, and of themselves, so that maybe, maybe, we’ll have less people murdered because they’re gay by a murderer who was to ashamed to be gay.

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I Didn't Say It ...

Harvey Fierstein, asking The Gays to stop protesting [t]Rump:

“Watching our people protesting Trump today I have to say that I don’t understand what we’re doing. I understand that we must always speak out against intolerance and bigotry and anyone who would destroy American values to ensure their own profits but, at this moment…WHY ARE WE DOING THE REPUBLICANS’ JOB FOR THEM? They created Trump. They earned him. As if their hateful rhetoric wasn’t enough, just in how they treated our President, they earned Trump! With every racist slight, with every homophobic slander, with every manufactured semi-automatic weapon and oil spill and fracking disaster and shuttered women’s clinic and attack on affordable health care, the Republican leadership built this Frankenstein monster. Let the monster they created and nurtured destroy them! What do you think they’ll do if we manage to Dump Trump? They’ll only turn around and give us the next horror from their arsenal of selfish intolerance. Look who they have to offer America. Next up is Cruz. CRUZ!!!!! Someone who has done nothing in his career but self promote, obstruct progress, and lie. Don’t you see that Trump is the radical that makes the dangerous Cruz look reasonable?”

As usual, Harvey nails it. Let the GOP have [t]Rump and then watch them implode because of it … latest news is that if [t]Rump is the GOP nominee, it’s very likely the Democrats would take back the House and the Senate.

Boom! Vote Blue!

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Noah Galvin, the newly out Kenny on The Real O’Neal’s, on playing gay on TV being like reliving his own coming out:

“I have found that there is a very clear distinction between how young people view the show as opposed to older people who have gone through this. I’m gay myself, and I haven’t gone through a lot of the things that Kenny goes through in the series. I felt a little disconnected from it because I was experiencing these things again but I was like, ‘Is this … crazy new and groundbreaking?’ I came off the stage and Twitter was ablaze with ‘Noah Galvin comes out ...' I was like, ‘I didn’t come out to anybody. It was just new information to you.’”

I just watched a Matt Baume video on Gays on TV through the ages … from being the silent ones, the comic relief, the butt of the joke, to being out loud, being proud, speaking up, being equal.

Kenny, and The Real O’Neal’s—while not a perfect show though it has its moments—is the result.

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Steve Grand, openly gay musician and Instagram darling, on the pitfalls of being pretty:

"I just know people have really, really low expectations of me and that’s what the Internet does. I’m such an easy person to target. Young, good-looking, white, gay men — we love to hate those people. But there’s been a real person there the whole time. I’m not very good at crafting the public image version of me. I’m just not. I’m too messy of a person, and I care too much about being able to be a real dimensional human being. [I’m not] a well-oiled machine. I still am just a regular person operating in the same world as everyone else. I’m not rich and famous. And I think there’s a weird disconnect that, when someone has any degree of fame on social media or whatever, we discount them as being a real, complicated human being. I feel like I have always fought for myself to be seen as a complex, nuanced human being, to the point where I would rather not have lots of success and notoriety if it means that I can’t let all the messy edges of me show.”

Oh Steve, you aren’t new or different. I passed ten of you on the way to work this morning. And the messiness is what you create by fame-whoring your every shirtless, drunken photo to the internet.

You’re cute, yes, and talented, yes, but you aren’t all that and a bag of chips. You're a stereotype of what people thing 'gay' looks like and what all gay men want.

Don't be the stereotype; break the stereotype.

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Arthur Blank, Atlanta Falcons owner, on Georgia's anti-LGBT ‘license to discriminate’ bill:

“One of my bedrock values is ‘Include Everyone’ and it’s a principle we embrace and strive to live each and every day with my family and our associates, a vast majority of which live and work in Georgia. I strongly believe a diverse, inclusive and welcoming Georgia is critical to our citizens and the millions of visitors coming to enjoy all that our great state has to offer. House Bill 757 undermines these principles and would have long-lasting negative impact on our state and the people of Georgia.”

Georgia is on the brink of ruining itself, and its economy, not to mention its image, by legalizing hate.

Thank the goddess that people like Blank are standing up and speaking out.

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Matt Bomer, on how he saw himself in Montgomery Clift:

“Even as a young kid — before obviously I knew anything about him, or even myself — I saw him on screen and I thought, ‘Oh wow he actually looks a lot like my brother. He was one of those really early screen icons for me to start with. Then once I learned the circumstances of his life, I realized how he was someone who did not want to be relegated to the times he lived in and was so progressive in so many ways.”

Bomer is set to play Clift in an HBO film. Perfect casting because I cannot help but think that, if Montgomery Clift had arrived on the scene in the early part of this century instead of the middle of the century, he’d be a Matt Bomer, too.

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Repost: LGBT History Month: Harvey Fierstein*

*originally posted October 29, 2009

Harvey Fierstein is a lot of things; he's been a drag performer, a stage actor, film actor, cartoon character, musical performer, gay rights activist, and playwright. His life is as unconventional as any you might find, as is his success. He's made a career of turning unconventional stories into Broadway sensations. 

In the 1980s, his play Torch Song Trilogy won him two Tony Awards, for Best Actor and for Best Play. In it, Harvey plays a drag queen--a breakthrough piece because it proved that a gay–themed show could turn a profit on Broadway--and in 2002 Harvey Fierstein won another Tony Award for Best Actor, by playing a woman, Edna Turnblad in the musical Hairspray. In between he won a Tony for Best Book of a Musical, for La Cage Aux Folles, giving him the distinction of being only the second person in history to earn four Tony Awards in different categories.

Harvey wanted to be a writer, even way back in high school, and he took every creative writing course he could find. Trouble was, he wasn't so good at it, so he switched to something he knew better: drag. As a 270–pound teenager, Fierstein specialized in impersonations of brassy–voiced Broadway star Ethel Merman, and became a hit in some of New York's lesser–known clubs. he also created his own characters, Virginia Hamm, Kitty Litter, and Bertha Venation, which he took to the clubs. he was doing all this while still in school.

Despite the demands of his busy life, Fierstein gained the attention of Andy Warhol, who cast him in Pork, one of Warhol's few theater productions. The play, in which Harvey played an asthmatic lesbian, had its debut at New York's La Mama Experimental Theater Club in 1971. Soon, Fierstein was writing his own plays, inspired by other La Mama actors who wrote plays for him to perform; Harvey returned the favor by writing his colleagues into his plays, the first of which, International Stud, debuted in 1972. The gay community loved it, but no one, least of all Harvey Fierstein, ever thought his brand of theater would ever make it to Broadway.

A critic dubbed Harvey "the devil come to earth for writing such a horrible thing," and, never one to be stifled by criticism, Harvey continued writing, though, to appease his parents who wished he would earn a steady income, he enrolled at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn to study art education, earning a BFA in 1973. Fierstein taught briefly, but he couldn't stay out of the theater, and continued working on his plays, writing and staring in his one-act productions. Two of those plays, Fugue in a Nursery and Children First, would be combined with International Stud to form Torch Song Trilogy.

The main character in Torch Song Trilogy is Arnold Beckoff, a drag queen who yearns for an ordinary life, who wants nothing more than to settle down, adopt a child, and live happily ever after. Arnold sees no reason his sexual orientation should hinder that goal. Fierstein based the character on his own experiences as a gay man who wanted to marry his lover, who left him for a woman, who watched his friends be gay bashed, who longed to have a child. The play was hit because everyone, gay and straight, could identify with Arnold, who wanted out of life what most people want.

With his newfound success, Fierstein next took on a musical adaptation of La Cage Aux Folles, writing most of the book on the subway, to and from his appearances in Torch Song. La Cage Aux Folles opened at the Palace Theater in August of 1983 and ran for 1,761 performances. Other plays followed, Spookhouse, Forget Him, and Safe Sex; none as successful as his previous works.

Over the next several years, Fierstein appeared in more than 30 films; he even reprised the role of Arnold in the film version "Torch Song Trilogy." He appeared on television in everything from, yes, "Murder She Wrote" to "Cheers," and voiced the character of Homer Simpson's gay secretary in "The Simpsons." In 2002, he was back on Broadway as Edna Turnblad  in Hairspray.

But Harvey isn't all drag queen and playwright. he's also an outspoken advocate for the LGBT community. He purposely only takes roles that he believes will influence people's opinions about gay people:

"There are times when I don't take roles because I don't want to be perceived a certain way. For example, I was offered the role as the monster in Stephen King's It —a clown who ate children. I wouldn't do it. Even though it was a great role, I felt that I didn't want to be perceived in that way because of the horrible lie that gay people want children. I wasn't even going to put that in the back of people's minds."

Over the years, Fierstein has been a vocal gay–rights activist, speaking out for gay people, queer theater, and AIDS causes. He has been a spokesman for the Services Legal Defense Fund, a group that advocates for the rights of gays and lesbians in the military, and he continues to work for marriage equality and LGBT rights.

The march goes on, sometimes in stilettos and spandex.

And while I've admired Harvey the writer, entertainer, actor, singer, and yes, even dancer, this Harvey is the one I admire most.

On This Day In LGBT History

October 29, 1979 – Gay activists hold “mince-in” at Ontario legislature in Toronto to draw attention to inaction on human rights protections for gays and lesbians.

October 29, 1995 – In Iran, a 31 year old man was convicted of “ugly and improper conduct” and sentenced to twenty lashes for cross-dressing.

October 29, 1997 – Representatives from the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Latino/a Lesbian and Gay Organization, and the Gay Lesbian and Straight Educators Network met with House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt to discuss the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and funding for AIDS care and research.

October 29, 1997- US House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt met with several leaders of national gay and lesbian organizations to discuss ways in which the party could assist gay and lesbian candidates through the coming election cycle.

October 29, 1997- Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) introduced a bill calling for the extension of health insurance coverage to the domestic partners of US federal employees through the federal employee health program.

October 29, 1997- Maryland’s Court of Special Appeals unanimously overturned Circuit Court Judge Lawrence H. Rushworth’s decision prohibiting a divorced gay man from seeing his children in the presence of his partner.

I Didn't Say It ....

Harvey Fierstein, on Orson Scott Card, writer of Ender's Game:

"The quotes that got me about him weren’t against gay marriage -- he wanted homosexuality criminalized in the United States. That's what he called for. You want me to be tolerant of you wanting to criminalize homosexuality? F--k you on your grave, you piece of s--t."

I loathe the so-called Christians who want me to tolerate their faith while they use their faith to have me declared a criminal for my sexual orientation.

The fact is that Orson Scott Card and his ilk chose their faith; I was born this way.

Johnny Weir, on the suggested boycott of the Winter Olympics in Russia because of their anti-LGBT stance:

"To have a boycott would not only negate the career of some athletes who have only one chance at competing at the Games, but also the over-time shifts an exhausted father takes to make ends meet, or the social acclimatization of a brother who can’t go on spring break because his brother needed another costume, or the mother who works part-time at a job far beneath her, just so she can afford to watch her first born perform for the world. The Olympics are not a political statement, they are a place to let the world shine in peace and let them marvel at their youthful talents. ... I respect the LGBT community full heartedly, but I implore the world not to boycott the Olympic Games because of Russia’s stance on LGBT rights or lack thereof. I beg the gay athletes not to forget their missions and fight for a chance to dazzle the world."

I’m on Team Johnny here.

I want our LGBT athletes, and LGBT ally athletes to go to the games and stand up for the LGBT community and against Putin’s homophobic, intolerant, and even deadly, policies.

Desmond Tutu, Anglican Archbishop and social rights activist, on refusing entrance to Heaven if God is a homophobe: 

"I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place. I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this."

So many folks got their robes in a snit over this quote, but to me, what Tutu is saying is that God isn’t homophobia, and if she was, Tutu might choose a different after-life.

Blake Skjellerup, out speed skater, on the suggested boycott of the Winter Olympics in Russia because of their anti-LGBT stance: 

“For me it’s less about taking a stand and more about just being myself...I have no interest in going back into the closet in Sochi...This is not about defiance. This is me standing up for what I believe in.”

And, as I said, standing up against Putin’s Russia.

John Barrowman, on the vicious hostility he experienced after the announcement of his wedding:

"I don't get it. Some of the comments were outrageously vile. Quoting lines from the Bible. I won't tolerate it. People like that are banned on my Twitter account. I tell them to f**k off...People have a right to their beliefs but it doesn't mean they have to be nasty and deny other people their human rights. The world is not going to change and fall apart because a gay couple got married."

It’s love, people.

It’s a man who found the person with whom he chooses to be married and if you can’t be happy for people in love then you just can’t ever be happy.

Harvey Fierstein, on the suggested boycott of the Winter Olympics in Russia because of their anti-LGBT stance:

"You can’t get them through a U.N. sanction: 'Oh boy, the U.S. is mad at me. I’m shaking all the f--k over.' There’s only one way and that's in the pocketbook. You hurt them in the pocketbook, they shut the f--k up and back the f--k down. ... And Olympic athletes, I understand: You’ve worked your asses off for this for years, but there are still bigger things than you hanging something around your neck. There are bigger things in this world."

I usually agree with Harvey, but I think if we stay away, it’ll just be like the time we boycotted the Moscow Olympics because of something Russia did.

Remember that? Not many folks do; and about the only thing that came of that boycott was that Russia boycotted the LA Olympics in America after that.

Go. Stand tall. Stand proud. Stand out.

Sharon Osbourne, on Justin Bieber:

“I feel really bad for him. There’s this little kid with a huge dream, he’s cute, girls love him, and he wants to be a mean boy, and he’s about as mean as a fuckin’ kitten, and he’s trying to act out. It’s like pissing in a bucket. It’s like, “Oh, we’re the bad boys!” Fuck off! You don’t know what bad is. And I think that he’s lost, I really do. And, at the point he’s at in his career, it’s so dangerous because we’ve seen it all before a million times. Where do you go when you’re a child entertainer and then you want to transition to be a man? Very few make it.”

Sing it, Sharon.

Christian Vincent, out gay Danish actor, on why the struggle for LGBT rights in Russia and around the world matters: 
"I am privileged enough to be able to say [that I'm gay] openly, even publicly without any consequences. This is not something I need to do or something I have to do but I have the right to do it. The value of this right is not to be underestimated. The value of this right is not to be taken for granted. The absence of this right is lethal. If you are one of those who are, as myself, lucky enough to have this right, I merely ask of you to use it. Our brothers and sisters in Russia among many other places need our voice and our support now more than ever...Awareness has started and awareness is hope. And hope is never silent. So I ask of you once again, tell the world it's not okay."

Word.
I hope Russia gets the message.