Quotes About Acceptance

When I was growing up, I was obviously gay, and I got heckled every day of my life. The only way I knew how to survive was to make people laugh. If I could make them laugh, I wouldn't get hung in a locker for two hours. That's a blessing.

To survive, the GOP needs to invite people in, not shut them out.

Usually when you're auditioning for something, you are taking whatever is coming at you and saying 'yes' because you have to to survive.

I hope we can dismantle the idea that the entire south is sitting on our porches spitting tobacco and hating gay people.

What happened in the past that was painful has a great deal to do with what we are today, but revisiting this painful past can contribute little or nothing to what we need to do now.

Learn from the past and let it go. Live in today.

Therefore it does not help to sneer at the imperfection of today's reality or to preach absolutes as a daily agenda.

If I were offered a cochlear implant today, I would prefer not to have one. But that's not a statement about hearing aids or cochlear implants. It's about who you are.

Teenagers today are more free to be themselves and to accept themselves.

I think I need to accept the fact that I am where I am today because fans have shared my music illegally and legally, but I wouldn't be here today without the Internet, so I can't speak out against it.

I feel like I know I have enough friends who support me through those times. Like, I'll call a friend and be like, 'I really don't feel good about what I ate today,' and she'll be like, 'Dude, it's fine.'

Whenever I feel mom-guilt, or I feel pressure to be a better mom - to cook salmon on a bed of quinoa for my kids - I just think to myself, 'I... have... suffered... enough.' And then I feel fine about feeding my toddler a bag of chips for dinner.

My sexuality, in terms of 'Strictly' or whatever else I do in my life, ought to be as irrelevant as the length of my big toe.

My dad every now and then will toe that line and be like, You could try women!' And I'm like Don't. It's almost an endearing kind of homophobia, if such a thing exists.

When I was a little kid I was embarrassed to tell people I had six toes, and I still do have six toes.

I can't really say I miss my toes.

When my first daughter was born, my husband held her in his hands and said, 'My God, she's so beautiful.' I unwrapped the baby from her blankets. She was average size, with long thin fingers and a random assortment of toes. Her eyes were close set, and she had her father's hooked nose. It looked better on him.

If it's constructive criticism, please, go ahead. I'm all up for, 'Hey, your toes were not pointed.' Like, I can see that.

My idea of religion is we are supposed to bring people together. We are not supposed to judge other people.

Chess is a game where all different sorts of people can come together, not a game in which people are divided because of their religion or country of origin.

The music field was the first to break down racial barriers, because in order to play together, you have to love the people you are playing with, and if you have any racial inhibitions, you wouldn't be able to do that.

God puts pack rats together with non-pack rats.

Everybody in the family decided to get a tattoo each as a sign of togetherness and pestered me to get one. You have to be with the times, and I'm glad my tattoo isn't scary or anything.

My classmates could see I was not similar. So they made me their scapegoat. They hit me or locked me in the toilets. During the break, I would take refuge in the chapel, or I would arrange to stay alone in the classroom.