J thru L

Jesus Christ had the same and cannot be blamed. Christ had his John, and I have my sweet George. -King James I of England, responding to charges of an "unnatural relationship" between him and George Villiers

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"The Internet is an incredibly valuable tool in mobilizing, educating and uniting people around the world. It's vital that access to the Internet and the wealth of information on the World Wide Web be available to all members of society, not just those fortunate enough to attend a school with the required computer equipment or those wealthy enough to afford their own Internet connection." -- Lorri L. Jean, executive director of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center

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"The oppressed should rebel, and they will continue to rebel and raise disturbance until their civil rights are fully restored to them and all partial distinctions, exclusions and incapacitations are removed." - Thomas Jefferson, 1776

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"Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living." - Mary Harris "Mother" Jones

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"Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow talent to the dark place where it leads." - Erica Jong

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"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed." - Carl Jung (1875-1961)

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Attention
One day a man of the people said to Zen master Ikkyu, "Master, will you please write for me some maxims of the highest wisdom?" Ikkyu immediately wrote the word 'Attention.' "Is that all?" asked the man. "Will you not add something more?" Ikkyu then wrote twice running: 'Attention. Attention.' "Well," remarked the man rather irritably, "I really don't see much depth or subtlety in what you have just written." Then Ikkyu wrote the same word three times running: 'Attention. Attention. Attention.' Half angered the man demanded, "What does the word 'attention' mean, anyway?" And Ikkyu answered gently: "Attention means attention." - Roshi Phillip Kapleau

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"A loud voice cannot compete wth a clear voice, even if it's a whisper." - Barry Neil Kaufman

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"Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all--the apathy of human beings." - Helen Keller

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"My dear, before you kiss me good-bye, fix you hair. It's a mess." - George Kelly (1887-1974) was an American playwright and the uncle of Grace Kelly. On his death bed he was visited by a different niece, who leaned forward to kiss him farewell.

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"I believe in a America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish - where no public official either requests or accepts instructions from the pope, The National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source - where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials - and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all." - Pres. John Fitzgerald Kennedy

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"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope . . . and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." - Robert F. Kennedy

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"We believe that the rights of all people must be protected and guaranteed. We believe that the gay and lesbian communities must be supported in their civil rights as well as their right for their own sexual preference." - Correta Scott King (August 26, 1983)

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"Lesbian and gay peple are a permanent part of the American workforce, who currently have no protection from the arbitrary abuse of their rights on the job. For too long, our nation has tolerated the insidious form of discrimination against this group of Americans, who have worked as hard as any group, paid their taxes like everyone else, and yet have been denied equal protection under the law." - Coretta Scott King

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"I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people." - Coretta Scott King

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"Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood. This sets the stage for further repression and violence that spread all too easily to victimize the next minority group." - Coretta Scott King

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"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." - Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

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"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscentious stupidity." - MLK

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"It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important." -Martin Luther King, Jr. - Wall Street Journal, November 13, 1962

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I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for someone else's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." - MLK

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"If all persons with any trace of homosexual history, or those who were predominantly homosexual, were eliminated from the population today, there is no reason for believing that the incidence of the homosexual in the next generation would be materially reduced. The homosexual has been a significant part of human sexual activity since the dawn of history, primarily because it is an expression of capacities that are basic in the human animal" - Kinsey et al, 1948:666.

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"Straight culture encourages its members to find all their emotional needs (lover, best friend, confidante, roommate, vacation partner, parent of their children) in one person -- with predictable strains and horrible endings. Gays and lesbians tend to divvy out the emotional ties between different people -- lover(s), roomies, fuck buddies, best friends, 'sister(s)', and ex-lovers who become key members of our support network. Valuing honesty and honouring lust, we almost always open up our relationships to sex with other people after a few years. A recent study of Vancouver gay men found that only eight percent were in long-term relationships. A similar study of straights would, no doubt, have found some 80 percent or more were in long-term relationships. If we win access to this marriage snake-pit, it will begin the erosion of the culture that we've worked three decades to build. We've spent so long building our culture, and fighting for the freedom to live our lives as we really are, that we sometimes forget to pause to savour what we've made. And, though it has its flaws as do all cultures, it really is quite beautiful." - Gareth Kirkby, editor of Vancouver, Canada's Xtra West, April 12, 2001.

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"It takes a very long time to learn that a courtroom is the last place in the world for learning the truth." - Alice Koller, The Stations of Solitute (1990)

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"All the other countries have marriages specially made for gay people. What we have in The Netherlands is civil marriage open to everyone. That's the big difference. That is the news." - Henk Krol, father of the Dutch gay marriage movement, to Rex Wockner as The Netherlands became the first nation to let gays marry under the same laws as straight people, April 1, 2001.

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"You have to discuss it over and over again with the politicians and let them think. Discuss it over and over again until they understand there's no reason not to allow it. People are against it not because they think negative about it but because they feel negative in their lower body. That's the only reason they are against it. Once they start to think, they find no reason to be against it." - Henk Krol, father of the Dutch gay marriage movement

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"You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out he hates all the same people you do." - Anne Lamott

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"Look, I'm (over) 40, I'm single, and I work in musical theater - you do the math!" - Nathan Lane

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"You know, sometimes I get tired of our show being discriminated against because of the perceived lesbian subtext and people constantly trying to define you by it -- and this is just a character! But then I realized, Wow -- if I feel that way, imagine what it must be like to grow up gay!" - Lucy Lawless of "Xena: Warrior Princess", November 1999

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"I think there's pressure to condemn (homosexuality) in their (Americans') religion which causes their homophobia." - Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee

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She is descended from a long line that her mother listened to. - Gypsy Rose Lee

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"Each branch of government must rise up out of the shadows of inequality and be counted on this important civil rights issue by using their powers to put an end to discrimination against all people." - Calif. Dem. Mark Leno announcing he will re-introduce same sex marriage bill in the Assembly (12/06)

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However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way." - Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT

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"Of all tyrannies a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis

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"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." - Sinclair Lewis

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Girls who put out are tramps. Girls who don't are ladies. This is, however, a rather archaic use of the word. Should one of you boys happen upon a girl who doesn't put out, do not jump to the conclusion that you have found a lady. What you have probably found is a lesbian. - Fran Liebowitz, Metropolitan Life

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"...[I]f ypu removed all of the homosexuals and homosexual influence from what is generally regarded as American culture, you would pretty much be left with Let's Make A Deal." - Fran Lebowitz

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"I have fought too long and hard against discrimination based on race and color, and I'm not about to stand by and not fight against discrimination based on sexual orientation. I want to create a national beloved community where we can enhance the dignity of all humankind." - John Lewis, Congressman and Civil Rights pioneer

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"When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid." - Audre Lorde

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"There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt." - Audre Lorde

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"Love each other and fight for your rights." -- Interior Minister Sime Lucin, the head of the police, at Croatia's first-ever gay-pride

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