"We are all different, but we share the same human spirit."
~ World-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking passed away at age 76.

“We are all born the way we are. We need to support, embrace and respect each other. When we treat each other with dignity, we are all more dignified. When we treat each other with respect, we are all more respected.

I wish you affirm yourselves and your identities as well as your various diversities and celebrate your wonderful, beautiful, outstanding humanity.”

~ South African President Cyril Ramaphosa 

Frankly, I don’t even care about acceptance, but how dare you label me a criminal?

The truth is that I live in New Delhi, am financially independent and fairly well-known. 
All these help protect me but one only has to visit smaller cities, or go to villages to find out more about discrimination. I’ll also say that it’s not only about class and money; it is also about the environment. Imagine a mindset in which girls are raped in the belief that they’ll become straight.

  ~ Celebrity chef Ritu Dalmia on the Indian law, Section 377, that criminalizes her sexuality.

"Nuestra ciudadanía hoy es más libre. Hoy estamos más cerca de hacer realidad la aspiración de cualquier pareja a ser feliz, quererse, respetarse y protegerse en igualdad de condiciones, sin importar su orientación sexual. Como sociedad debemos sentir satisfacción al haber colocado un eslabón más en la extensa historia costarricense de respeto a los derechos humanos." ~ Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera

"Our citizens today are freer. Today we are closer to making reality the aspiration of any couple to be happy, to love, to respect themselves and protect themselves in conditions of equality, regardless of their sexual orientation. As a society, we must feel satisfaction at having placed one more link in the extensive Costa Rican history of respect for human rights."

“It is my freedom, my self-expression. If I don’t fight for that, then why am I living here?”

~ Sasha, Lebanese fashion model and transgender activist 

"I was extremely angry that I hadn’t been able to do anything to save my boyfriend’s life. I was still grieving. So I turned my grief and anger into rage and action and got involved with the movement." 

~ Eric Sawyer, founding member of ACT UP NY, co-founder of Housing Works, and co-founder of HealthGAP

When I told my parents last year I was gay, my father beat me up. My mom took a plastic bag, stuffed it with food and clothes and then I was kicked out. I did not have anywhere to go, didn’t have any money.
 
I did not dare to go back to school because of all the bullying that was going on. I ended up doing sex work to survive. Through an acquaintance I learnt about this shelter.”

~ Rajan, 18-year-old Albanian, on being expelled from his family home and seeking refuge at the LGBTQ shelter STREHA

"I was treated different because I was Aboriginal. We’re going to go treat gay and lesbian people differently? For why?"

~ Aboriginal elder, Harold Hunt. Recipient of the Order of Australia Medal.

"It is sickening to think that all this hysteria has been generated over a couple of kids raising a piece of cloth that stands for love."

~ Lebanese rock band Mashrou’ Leila on the mass arrests following kids waving a rainbow flag at their concert in Egypt

“LGBTI people have the right to decide freely over their own body and sexuality, this is absolutely fundamental.

Because if just one person doesn’t have the right to be who they are, then how can we claim that human rights are for all and not just a privilege for some.”

~ Martin Bille Hermann, Denmark’s State secretary for Development Policy, to the UN LGBTI Core Group 

"Cheating and adultery are wrong, but they are not criminalized... and no form of consensual adult expression of love should be..."
~ Rapper M.I. Abaga caused a stir online when he questioned Nigeria's law that criminalizes homosexuality.
 

"Be kind. Be brave. Be yourself."~ Rui Si Theresa Goh of Singapore, a self-described "a queer, disabled, paralympic medalist athlete"

“[The Minister’s] statement flies in the face of the constitutional rights to freedom of expression and association – and people are afraid to speak up. But we must remember that Tanzania would never have become independent were it not for the voices and actions of people who were opposed to the government at the time.”

~ Neela Ghoshal, Senior Researcher at Human Rights Watch on the crackdown against LGBT and other rights organizations

"I simply want to do the work I'm passionate about, and be seen by the people around me the way I see myself."
~ Alex Hai, the first openly trans gondolier in Venice, Italy

"...No puede ser que los prejuicios añejos sean más fuertes que el amor”

[I]t cannot be that old prejudices are stronger than love. 

~ Chile President Michelle Bachelet speaking to legislators of her intention to reintroduce a draft Marriage Equality Law

"We are a largely religious people, and long may that be celebrated, but each passing decade of this millennium has brought with it a looking glass into a more diverse society — in our views and in our levels of tolerance."

~Royal Gazette op-ed, reflecting on the Bermuda Supreme Court decision for marriage equality

«Vous n'aurez pas ma haine»  /  “You will not have my hatred”

~ Etienne Cardiles in his moving eulogy of his partner Xavier Jugelé, the policeman killed during a terror attack on Champs Elysees.

“This fight is not only your fight. This fight is that of all Dominicans who believe in equality, inclusion and equal rights.”

Dominican Republic’s Minister of Women’s Affairs Janet Camilo to over 300 Latin America and Caribbean LGBT activists attending the third annual LGBTI Political Leaderships meeting

One form of fundamentalism or extremism is not a justification for another. Each is a reinforcing reminder of the global humanist crisis that lies before us. We must break out of this vicious circle that will leave youth globally facing a political landscape offering only a bleak choice of competing extremisms.

~ Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Karima Bennoune in her report to  the Human Rights Council

“We have much to lose, so much to protect”

~ UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein at the Opening ceremony of the 34th session of the Human Rights Council