Gay Pride Parade Quotes 2016: 15 Inspiring LGBT Sayings

We are Orlando: It’s the slogan gay pride parades throughout the country have touted since the massacre at Pulse nightclub in Florida June 12, where 49 people were killed and 53 wounded. It was the deadliest single-gunman shooting in modern U.S. history. But the gay community will not be silenced. Some of the biggest parades this Sunday are taking place in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco.

To commemorate this month's pride celebrations, some notable lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender sayings are listed below, with a hat tip to Quote Garden and Quotesome:

1. “If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.” — Harvey Milk, gay San Francisco politician, assassinated in 1978

2. “Being gay is natural. Hating gay is a lifestyle choice.” — John Fugelsang, actor

3. “Openness may not completely disarm prejudice, but it’s a good place to start.” — Jason Collins, gay basketball player

4. “When all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free.” — President Barack Obama

5. “Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?” — Ernest Gaines, writer

6. “I say that homosexuality is not just a form of sex, it’s a form of love, and it deserves our respect for that reason.” — Christopher Hitchens, writer and journalist

7. “In itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality: The ideal should be to be capable of loving a woman or a man; either, a human being, without feeling fear, restraint or obligation.” — Simone de Beauvoir, feminist pioneer

8. “What people do in their own homes is their business, and you can choose to love whoever you love.” — Jay Z

9. “Only the human mind invents categories and tries to force facts into separated pigeon-holes. The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects. The sooner we learn this concerning sexual behavior the sooner we shall reach a sound understanding of the realities of sex.” — Alfred Kinsey, sex researcher

10. “What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it's curved like a road through mountains.” — Tennessee Williams, “A Streetcar Named Desire”

11. “Marriage should be between a spouse and a spouse, not a gender and a gender.” — Hendrik Hertzberg, journalist

12. “Understand that sexuality is as wide as the sea. Understand that your morality is not law. Understand that we are you. Understand that if we decide to have sex whether safe, safer, or unsafe, it is our decision, and you have no rights in our lovemaking.” — Derek Jarman, British filmmaker, died of AIDS

13. “The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.” — Gore Vidal, writer

14. “It always seemed to me a bit pointless to disapprove of homosexuality. It’s like disapproving of rain.” — Francis Maude, British politician

15. “Some women can’t say the word ‘lesbian’ ... even when their mouth is full of one.” —Kate Clinton, lesbian comedian

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