Quotes from Wilson Cruz

ADCOLOR is an incredible organization that not only empowers people from all backgrounds to rise up but also to give back.

I like to bring a level of vulnerability and real humanity to the characters I play when appropriate, and I feel like Dr. Culber lives pretty comfortably in that vulnerable world, but he's a professional first.

Steve Warren's work and career have opened doors for out professionals across the entertainment industry. In addition to advocating for LGBT people, he has continuously mobilized a large base of high-profile allies to help bring about social change.

I came out to my dad in Christmas of '94.

The seeds of marriage equality... were planted on MTV.

I hope that upon this scorched earth we have planted the seeds of ideas that will bear the fruit of more diverse and inclusive stories that include people of color in the LGBT community.

It's one thing to be sitting in a classroom and have a teacher tell you how to treat other people; it's a whole other thing to watch, week after week, somebody's life spelled out to you in an emotional way: That lesson is something that will stay with you forever.

I was 19, 20. I didn't know what to do. I knew one thing: I never saw myself on TV or anyone like me, and I wanted to be that for someone else. I think the most courageous thing I did was ask for help.

I remember watching the premiere of the pilot episode of 'Next Gen' when I was a teenager.

When you were a teenager, everything's kind of drawn in primary colors; everything's big, and everything's life or death.

When I was a teenager, in the '80s, it was 'Dynasty.' It was 'Beverly Hills, 90210.' And those were fantasies. Those weren't reflective of my experience. And I think we all want that; we all want to see ourselves, our story told, something to relate to, to help us and know that we're not freaks, that our experiences aren't odd.

Let me speak for myself: I think I wanted to see people who looked like me on TV. I wanted to see people who had similar experiences as I had, growing up. There was nobody on television when I was a teenager who I could relate to.

I remember just calling myself gay was a big step for me, and I remember being in the bathroom brushing my teeth, testing out to myself in the mirror, saying, 'I am gay,' and seeing if the world was going to stop or if the ceiling would fall in on me.

The work that needs to be done now is to diversify the picture of LGBTQ people so that people can see that we come from all races, different genders; we have trans people.

If you were to turn on the TV in 1986, '87, you wouldn't see anybody having, I guess, a low-to-middle-income person of color experience. And you definitely wouldn't have a young LGBT person or their story told. The experience of being invisible in our culture has ramifications that I don't think any of us can really understand.

I've always been drawn to love stories. Growing up, I would devour films like 'Moonstruck,' 'Ghost,' 'Love and Basketball,' and 'Love, Jones,' replacing the lovers in my imagination with two men.

You cannot overstate, I don't think, the impact of a show like 'Glee' on a generation.

I had no idea what being on stage would be like or how I'd react to the applause. I didn't think I deserved their applause. Then I realized I'd done something to make them feel something. That made it okay. But it was weird. A nice weird.

I learned so much about love from the movies. For a couple of hours, I would allow myself to dream about love and a life that, for me, ordinarily, felt out of reach. So, it was with deep gratitude that I watched the drama 'Call Me by Your Name,' knowing what a beautiful teacher it would be for boys like me.

I am honored to be receiving the Point Courage Award.

Adam Lambert's continued success as one of the world's best-selling pop stars shows LGBT people that they can be themselves and make it in a mainstream industry that many feel unfairly rejects them.

I don't think it's exaggeration or hyperbole to say that Pedro Zamora changed the world.

For more than two decades, GLAAD has combatted anti-LGBT images in the media and changed the national conversation about LGBT people.

My dad is now an incredibly important ally of mine. I'm so impressed with him. He's a hero to me because he put love and his family first.