"I went through my scrapbook and I went through photographs, and I started to see that it's a little more interesting than I thought it was." 

- Jane Lynch 

"I hate Shakespeare. I think Shakespeare's rubbish."

- Alan Carr

“I do not want to be an artist, but a woman...Hence, I must shut all artistic creation out of my life...because I cannot continue the work of the virile artist who was [my masculine self].”

- Lili Elbe

"I'm just a regular guy. All these ideas that children shouldn't watch me [on television], I'm going to be confusing them, all this stuff...it's crazy." 

- Chaz Bono 

"Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it."

- Truman Capote

"Anyone who has a continuous smile on his face conceals a toughness that is almost frightening."

- Greta Garbo

"[We are not] ladies--the kind who have Sunday schools, and never say a bad word, and rustle around in a lot of silk petticoats..." 

- Mary Ellicott Arnold 

"All my day is dealing with other people. When I come home I like it to be empty. The presence of others in my house kind of annoys me. I love coming home and shutting the doors...I'm relatively available, but not to live with." 

- Graham Norton 

"The best days I have are usually days where I'm out in the woods and something happens, like I see an amazing animal like a fox, or I get a glimpse of a wild pig or something that I never see. Or crazy things happen."

- Amy Ray 

Prolific Person of the Week:

George Takei

"It's okay to be Takei."

George Hosato Takei (April 20, 1937) was born in Los Angeles, California to Japanese American parents, Fumiko Emily and Takekuma Norman Takei. His father was an Anglophile, and named his son after George VI of the United Kingdom, who was crowned in 1937. He was raised Buddhist.

When George was only five years old, his family was relocated to the Rohwer War Relocation Center for internment in Arkansas. His parents, though both born in America, were still viewed suspiciously by the United States government after the involvement of the Japanese conflict during World War II. Later, the Takeis were transferred to Tule Lake War Relocation Center in California. Takei would later recall, "I spent my boyhood behind the barbed wire fences of American internment camps and...that part of my life is something that I wanted to share with more people." 

The family would later be allowed to return to their home in Los Angeles, at the end of World War II. 

Takei attended Mount Vernon Junior High School, serving as student body president, and becoming a member of Boy Scout Troop 379. Upon graduating from Los Angeles High School, he attended the University of California at Los Angeles, where he received a bachelors of arts in theater. He went on to complete his Masters degree in 1964. 

Takei began sharpening his acting skills abroad, first attending the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, and then at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan. Upon returning to Hollywood, he attended the Desilu Workshop--an acting school run by Lucille Ball and her then-husband Desi Arnaz. 

Takei's break-through role as an actor (and perhaps the role for which he is best known) was as Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek series. It was during his time on the series, that Takei first began to be open about his sexual identity as a gay man. 

Although his sexuality was under speculation since the beginning of his career as an actor, Takei came out publicly in October of 2005, saying "It's not really 'coming out', which suggests opening a door and stepping through it. It's more like a long, long walk through what began as a narrow corridor that starts to widen."  

Takei continues to be active in LGBT organizations, particularly with the Human Rights Campaign's 'Coming Out' project, for which he serves as a spokesperson. 

Takei currently resides in Los Angeles, California with his husband of almost five years, Brad Altman.

"If truth is beauty, how come no one has their hair done in the library?"

- Lily Tomlin 

"You can wear whatever, be whatever, do whatever you want."

- Christian Siriano

"As far as I'm concerned, I am very fortunate because I never thought of it as being a hinderance or something negative; you see me and you know I'm gay. I think all of our differences and things that makes us unique are always strengths and that people should use it as a strength rather than see it as a difference. The more accepting I am of my lifestyle and how I look and what I do, the more others will be, too. It's just part of me and I don't want it to be a big deal."

- Jenny Shimizu

"I think I've always been bisexual...I think people are born bisexual, and it's just that our parents and society kind of veer us off into this feeling of 'Oh, I can't.' They say it's taboo. It's ingrained in our heads that it's bad, when it's not bad at all. It's a very beautiful thing."

- Billie Joe Armstrong

"I don't have to have a lot of formality around it [being a lesbian]...there were people before me who paved the way." 

- Brandi Carlile

"I have been a teacher, I have been a student, and I have been an actress--I have even, once, been a physical man and an internal woman!" 

- Marie Pierre Pruvot

“Hate language in the school hallways is huge. These students are too often the target of name-calling, violence and worse. We, as parents, have a duty to fight for all children--not just our own.”
- Judy Shepard, 

mother of Matthew Shepard

"I love my past, I love my present. I am not ashamed of what I have had, and I am not sad because I no longer have it."
- Colette

Prolific Person of the Week:

Christine Jorgensen

"Nature made a mistake, which I have corrected." 

Christine Jorgensen (May 30, 1926-May 3, 1989) was born George William Jorgensen Jr. in the Bronx area of New York. Her parents were George William Jorgensen Sr, a carpenter and contractor, and Florence Hansen. 

Christine's childhood was riddled with confusing instances, in which she later explained in self-describing herself as a "frail, blond, introverted little boy who ran from fistfights and rough-and-tumble games". 

Jorgensen graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in 1945 and was shortly thereafter drafted into the United States Army. After being discharged from the Army, she attended Mohawk College in Utica, New York, the Progressive School of Photography in New Haven, Connecticut, and the Manhattan Medical and Dental School in New York City, New York. 

As Jorgensen continued to work odd jobs in New York, she also began to ponder the possibility of sex-reassignment surgery. Her "lack of male physical development" had always concerned her, and upon researching treatments, she began to discover the intricate truths of the sexuality. 

Jorgensen then decided to tour Europe, in search of more answers to her questions about the possibility of sex-reassignment. She intended to go to Sweden, but whilst in Denmark visiting relatives she met Dr. Christian Hamburger, a Danish endocrinologist. Dr. Hamburger was a specialist in rehabilitative hormonal therapy, and under his careful direction, Jorgensen underwent a series of hormonal therapies and surgeries. 

It was then that Jorgensen chose the name Christine for her new identity, in honor of Dr. Hamburger. 

Little did Jorgensen know, when she returned to New York in February of 1953, she became an instant celebrity. Back home, her father, her only surviving parent, was incredibly accepting of her unique change. He built her a home in Massapequa, New York. When interviewed in later years about her return to the United States, and the sensation she faced, Jorgensen replied, "people were generally more curious than cruel". 

Jorgensen's private life was the cause of much tabloid craze. She was first engaged to John Traub, a labor-union statistician, and later to Howard J. Knox, a typist. Both engagements were called off, apparently due to the pressure both men faced about "marrying someone who used to be a man". 

Regardless of the struggles, Jorgensen enjoyed a comfortable life as an entertainer. Known for her elegance and polished wit, she preformed all over Europe and the United States well into her seventies. She also became a voice for transsexual and transgender individuals. 

Jorgensen died of bladder and lung cancer in 1989, four weeks short of her sixty-third birthday. 

"Walking with your chest out and your head held high says you have earned the right to stomp and pummel this particular piece of real estate." 

- Rupaul 

"Growth is exciting; growth is dynamic and alarming. Growth of the soul, growth of the mind." 

- Vita Sackville-West 

"If you're wearing it to 'da club, you shouldn't be wearing it to 'da office." 
- Clinton Kelly 

"This filthy twentieth century. I hate its guts." 

- A. L. Rowse

"I do agree with you...that boys and girls ought to be brought up together and treated in the same way. It will be curious to know what happens after all the boys are being taught to fly, and the girls to drive. I like the implication that now the skies are left to the males, the girls can have the earth."
- Bryher (in a letter to a friend June 1941)

"My parents were devastated [when I told them I was gay]. At first I thought I could just...suppress my gender issues. When I finally gave into my own needs and undertook transition, I felt excited and liberated like I never had before in my life." 

- Calpernia Addams 

"What's so intense about this process [of coming out] is that we realize we've all been bullies, that some of the things we've said or done could have hurt other people. It's been very awakening." 

- Tully Satre

"Love is not enough. It must be the foundation, the cornerstone--but not the complete structure. It is much too pliable, too yielding."

- Quentin Crisp

Prolific Person of the Week:

Ruth Ellis

"I was always out of the closet. I didn't have to come out."

Ruth Ellis (July 23, 1899 - October 5, 2000) was born in Springfield, Illinois to Charlie and Carrie Ellis. She was the youngest of four children, and the only daughter. Her parents were born in the last years of slavery, in Tennessee. Her father was self-educated, and became the first African-American mail carrier in Illinois.  

Ellis was raised with no female role models, as her mother passed away when she was a young girl. "My mother died just about the time I started menstruating," Ellis recalled, "so she showed me that, but from then on nobody told me anything." Though unconventional for the time, her father encouraged her attraction to women. He feared that raising a daughter who was involved with boys would, as she later noted, "get [me] into trouble". 

Ellis came out as a lesbian around 1915, before graduating from Springfield High School in 1919. In the 1920s, she met the woman who would become her partner, Ceciline "Babe" Franklin. They moved together to Detroit, Michigan in 1937, where Ellis became the first woman to own a printing business in that city. Her venture was successful, and she made a living printing stationary, fliers, and posters from her home. 

She and Franklin soon opened their home to local members of the LGBT community in Detroit. Said Ellis of the time, "On weekends, that would be the place to come because there weren't many places unless it was in someone's home. So they'd come down, and we'd play the piano and dance, and some of them would play cards." 

Babe and Ruth's relationship was oddly conventional for the time, with each taking their respective roles. Babe, who was young at heart, liked to dance, gamble, and drink. Ruth, who was more practical and sensible, preferred to work, sit quietly reading, or go to church. They were together for over 35 years, until Franklin's death in 1975.

In later life, Ellis remained active by taking self-defense classes (at the age of 79), embracing a younger "out" generation of LGBT youth, attending festivals and parades, and becoming a public speaker. Despite a pressing invitation to go to LGBT conventions in France, Ellis adamantly declined, "No, I'm not crossing no ocean, no way." 

Ellis, at the age of 100, was present at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the opening of the Ruth Ellis Center in Detroit, a haven erected for at-risk LGBT youth. 

In the fall of 2000, in part to heart problems, Ruth Ellis was hospitalized. Despite pressure to remain in the hospital for at least a few weeks, Ellis insisted on returning home to resume her life. She was attended by her friends and family, until she passed away in her sleep on October 5, 2000. 

Ruth Ellis, having passed away at 101, is credited as being the oldest known lesbian and LGBT activist. 

Works Cited:

http://www.utne.com/Politics/Ruth-Ellis-Americas-Oldest-Lesbian.aspx#ixzz2Jf8aTbrS

http://ishouldbelaughing.blogspot.com/2009/10/lgbt-history-month-ruth-ellis.html