Quotes About Representation

To allow the policy question of same-sex marriage to be considered and resolved by a select, patrician, highly unrepresentative panel of nine is to violate a principle even more fundamental than no taxation without representation: no social transformation without representation.

There is something transformative if you're a black person cheering in a theater and turn to see a white person cheering for the same thing you are.

If I was the Jackie Robinson of golf, I sure didn't do a very good job of it. Jackie was followed by hundreds of great black ballplayers who have transformed their sport... But there are hardly any black kids coming up through the ranks of golf today.

Gay TV has been immensely important in transforming American culture in a more gay-positive direction.

What's always intriguing to me is transforming my subjects into a character from another era.

Transgender casting is a kind of literalism. It is the same with racial casting. This means that you can now only play Othello if you are black. There is something quite tainted about it. It is a form of racism in itself.

When I would walk down the runway back in the late 90s, I could feel the tension from others who knew I was transgender. I could see the joy on the faces of people from my community, elated to see someone represent them.

Historically, our culture has not made room for the nuances of humanity. People have not been kept safe: women, people of colour, queer people, transgender people.

Cisgender actors don't take trans roles out of malice. I think it's just failure to realize the context behind having cisgender people play transgender characters because we don't see the same issue with sexuality.

Usually, when you are an ethnic person or a trans person, in your average, everyday, unsophisticated television show, you are there for that reason. And they clearly justify and overexplain why. You very rarely see a transgender actor playing the part of a grocery-store clerk without having to say, 'Oh, look at that trans person.'

I kind of cheer the presence of any gay characters at all - I think the more we can saturate television with any gay character or lesbian character or transgender character, I think that's a really great thing. We're kind of getting past the fact that they're the punchline or that they're the novelty.

With the removal of questions about gayness and transgender status in the Census, we really stand to lose a lot of the progress that has been made, and certainly not to make further progress. In order to have a fair system, you need a system you can measure.

To you people out there, you producers and you network owners and you agents and you creative sparks, please give transgender talent a chance. Give them auditions. Give them their story. Do that.

I'm not saying transgender characters should be only interpreted by transgender actors - because that would be as rigid as saying transgender actors cannot play cisgender roles, and that's not the idea.

I think that the fact of the matter is that metal isn't really part of the big picture of the gay, lesbian, transgender music scene. But it's certainly there. There's gay metalheads all over the world.

I don't want the same trans story to be told over and over again. I don't want people to get stuck on this very western idea of what it means to be transgender.

I can only imagine how much more fun it's going to be to play someone who shares my identity rather than having to contort myself to play a boy. I'm going to gun for those roles, be it a transgender female or a cisgender female.

I am not covering stories as a transgender reporter. I'm a reporter who is transgender. Otherwise, it would be like having a black reporter only cover stories about blacks or a Hispanic reporter covering stories about Hispanics.

It's important to have transgender representation because we represent the forthcoming generation, and their new perception on the standard of beauty - which I believe is being true to yourself, loving yourself and others.

Through Tamil movie 'Kanchana' I wanted to convey the pain and struggles of transgenders and the movie received lot of appreciation from transgender's community and the public.

I am playing the character of Saumya, a transgender, again. Shakti' is going for a giant leap and we are making a more interesting and risky attempt again, hoping that it will be received well by the audience.

I should be paid to be a spokesman for Ford Transit.

I'm the know-nothing. I'm curious, I try to be entertaining, I try to translate the techno jargon, but in the end I'm the audience's representative.

We've all been watching stories about heterosexuals forever... As a gay kid, you are always having to translate. You are always having to pretend like you are one of the other characters. You're not seeing your life accurately reflected.