30 LGBTQ+ Inspirational Quotes - Pridely Gay (2024)

If you’re new to the LGBTQIA+ community and don’t know what it stands for, it’s an inclusive phrase that covers individuals of all genders and sexualities, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, queer, asexual, intersex, pansexual, and allies.

While each letter in LGBTQIA+ represents a distinct group of individuals, the phrase as a whole embraces the complete range of sexual identities and gender fluidity.

These statements span a wide range of topics, from coming out to being yourself. Many well-known LGBTQ+ personalities, including authors, lecturers, and actors, have spoken about their path to self-acceptance, families, and relationships. After reading through these LGBTQIA+ inspiring quotations, you will undoubtedly feel motivated.

1. Anthony Venn-Brown

“Every single courageous act of coming out chips away at the curse of hom*ophobia. Most importantly it’s destroyed within yourself, and that act creates the potential for its destruction where it exists in friends, family and society.”

2. Morgan Freeman

“I hate the word hom*ophobia. It’s not a phobia. You’re not scared. You’re an asshole.”

3. Angela Chen

“Straight people are rarely treated like they’re close-minded for knowing their sexual orientation, but aces are assumed to be unsure and always on the brink of finding the person who will change everything.”

4. Portia DeRossi

“I’m living by example by continuing on with my career and having a full, rich life, and I am incidentally gay.”

5. Kathryn Ormsbee

“I know what I want and what I don’t want. I’ve never wanted sex. Never. I’ve never understood why it has to be in every book and movie and television show ever made. I never figured out why p*rn is such a huge thing. I’ll be fine if no guy ever takes his shirt off for me. I’m not scared, I just don’t want it.”

6. Megan Rapinoe

“It’s been a journey and a process of becoming totally out and sort of living that truth and having it be a daily thing. I’m at the point now that I want people to know that, and I want to talk about it. We’re coming so far as a society, but we still have so far to go. So until we’re all the way there, I’ll probably die talking about it.”

7. Gar McVey-Russell

““The true ugliness of the closet is its subtlety. It eats away at your soul bit by bit and you don’t even realize it. If you never deal with it or come to terms with it, then ultimately the closet will destroy you.”

8. Edie Windsor

“Marriage is a magic word. And it is magic throughout the world. It has to do with our dignity as human beings, to be who we are openly.”

9. Kristina Kuzmic

“I want to live in a world where gay children don’t have to feel like outsiders, don’t have to play be different rules, and don’t have to prepare a big coming-out speech or be terrified of whether or not their mom and dad will love and embrace them for who they are.”

10. Cole Ledford

“Every person felt like they didn’t belong, or at some point felt like they didn’t need to carry on, they weren’t needed. So I think it’s important to show each other, “Look, we’re all in this together, we all feel this way, let’s work together.”

11. Dior Vargas

“I can’t be there for other people unless I’m there for myself. I can’t really work to push our movement without really investing in myself. By investing in yourself you’re also investing in your community.”

12. Alice Walker

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”

13. Juno Dawson

“Remember this, whoever you are, however you are, you are equally valid, equally justified, and equally beautiful.”

14. Andreja Pejic

“To all trans youth out there, I would like to say respect yourself and be proud of who you are. All human beings deserve equal treatment no matter their gender identity or sexuality. To be perceived as what you say you are is a basic right.”

15. Alice Walker

“Please remember, especially in these times of group-think and the right-on chorus, that no person is your friend (or kin) who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow and be perceived as fully blossomed as you were intended.”

16. Connor Franta

““It’s okay. It may not seem like it right now, but you are going to be fine. I know it’s scary, but don’t be afraid. You are who you are, and you should love that person, and I don’t want anyone to have to go through 22 years of their life afraid to accept that.”

17. Linda Thompson

“Being transgender, like being gay, tall, short, white, black, male, or female, is another part of the human condition that makes each individual unique and something over which we have no control. We are who we are in the deepest recesses of our minds, hearts, and identities.”

18. Tammy Baldwin

“There will not be a magic day when we wake up and it’s now OK to express ourselves publicly. We make that day by doing things publicly until it’s simply the way things are.”

19. Janet Mock

“Sometimes people try to destroy you, precisely because they recognize your power – not because they don’t see it, but because they see it and they don’t want it to exist.”

20. Laverne Cox

“I think trans women, and trans people in general, show everyone that you can define what it means to be a man or woman on your own terms. A lot of what feminism is about is moving outside of roles and moving outside of expectations of who and what you’re supposed to be to live a more authentic life.”

21. Alice Walker

“I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else’s whim or to someone else’s ignorance.”

22. Grace Dolan-Sandrino

“Trans people are extraordinary, strong, intelligent, persistent and resilient. We have to be. And we will not stand for the picking and choosing of rights. We still have hope.”

23. Alice Oseman

“She’s happy with who she is. Maybe it’s not the heteronormative dream that she grew up wishing for, but… knowing who you are and loving yourself is so much better than that, I think.”

24. Nicki Petrikowski

“Accepted social gender roles and expectations are so entrenched in our culture that most people cannot imagine any other way. As a result, individuals fitting neatly into these expectations rarely if ever question what gender really means. They have never had to, because the system has worked for them.”

25. Chester Brown

“Gay rights aren’t predicated on being born gay or having the right gene. Gay rights are predicated on having choice and consent. If you’re a man and you can find another man that consents to have sex with you, it’s the consent that gives you the right to have sex with him. Genetics are irrelevant when it comes to sexual rights. Just as gay rights are based on choice and consent, so are prostitution rights. All sexual rights are based on choice and consent.”

26. Laverne Cox

“We are not what other people say we are. We are who we know ourselves to be, and we are what we love. That’s okay.”

27. Andrew Holleran

“The point is that we are not doomed because we are hom*osexual, my dear, we are doomed only if we live in despair because of it, as we did on the beaches and the streets of Suck City.”

28. Ian McKellen

“I’ve never met a gay person who regretted coming out—including myself. Life, at last, begins to make sense when you are open and honest.”

29. Abhijit Naskar

“In the unification of two minds, the orientation of sexuality is irrelevant.”

30. Sarah McBride

“I once worried that there was no place for trans people like me to participate in any way in our politics. Since coming out, though, I’ve seen that change is possible and I’ve learned that the only things that are truly impossible are the things we don’t try. You can run, you can win, and you can serve.”

Final Thoughts

Whatever your sexuality or gender identity, you should not feel ashamed of who you are. Your rights as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community have been fought for through many years of protests and speeches which made a big impact.

There has also been a steady increase of queer representation in media such as movies and books which provides us with a lot of inspirational quotes and characters.

Of course, things are still not perfect for the queer community as there are still nearly 70 countries out there that criminalize it.

As long as you are safe, now is the time to be loud and proud about who you are, LGBTQIA+ people have hidden for far too long!