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For my own part, once I became a teenager, I experienced severe and violent racism.

The hopeless grief of those poor colored people affected me more than almost anything else.

I'm not trying to say that it never hurt or that I never felt its sting, but I can honestly say that I never blamed anybody for racism. I have considered it more of a manifestation of humanity's problem rather than my personal problem.

I've certainly experienced racism, but it has not made a great impact on me. I have always thought, as I got older and older, I was more in charge of who I was. What someone thought about me or said about me made less of an impression on me at very vulnerable times.

I was so beat down as a young person - being black, being gay, being unable to assimilate because I could never, ever pull off being butch.

I suffered from self hatred so much. It's like I didn't want to look like that any more. I didn't to feel like that any more. It had to be another way.

My parents raised me to not ever look at race or color, so it doesn't have a big part in my self-identity.

I'm the result of upbringing, class, race, gender, social prejudices, and economics. So I'm a victim again. A result.

Violence ravaged my life. I was a victim of hatred, and I have dedicated my life to reversing that hatred.

The hardest thing I had to overcome in life? I think racism. That's so difficult because I don't think anyone can ever understand it. It's not that people don't want to understand it, but they don't want to touch it.