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I've been an activist in the LGBT community for a long time. I think nothing's changed, I'm just a little bit more focused on the 'T' now than I was on the 'L' or the 'G.'

I would love to be an example to young LGBTQ kids everywhere. I remember growing up and feeling like nobody in the media accurately represented me, and when they did, it was always made to seem like a bad thing.

I got more and more politically active and just followed the course of feminism and sexual liberation.

My activism and sexual revolution in New York was a factor.

My activism did not spring from my being gay, or, for that matter, from my being black. Rather, it is rooted fundamentally in my Quaker upbringing and the values that were instilled in me by my grandparents who reared me.

What drew me to both study and activism was the formative experience of the civil rights movement.

I was pursuing my acting career, but I was silent on the LGBT issue, the issue that was closest to me. I knew if I came out then, I'd have had to change careers.

I have a big passion about civil rights for everyone - whoever is being downtrodden at the moment, it doesn't matter: racial discrimination or sexual orientation or gender. Whatever it is, I'm there. I think I was a born civil rights activist. I can't stand the smashing of a community. It's not fair and it's not right.

My own early crusade for same-sex marriage, for example, is now mainstream gay politics. It wasn't when I started.

I've been a very effective leader in the gay rights movement, though at times I've been controversial.