Trans Universe

It seems lately that a lot of people who have a tendency to post a great deal on the Internet has a famous – or not so famous – quote after their name. I refuse to do that because there are so many good quotes out there that picking just one may not fit the mood I’m in at the time. To me, different situation in activism requires different quotes. I have used many of them in the past, and even made a few of my own.

I figured that it would be fun to gather up some of the best ones that I remember, and some of the new ones I found on line and put them together in one place for everyone to choose from if the feeling hits them. Some of these quotes I will make comments about, so to distinguish the quotes from my comments, I will put them in bold letters, along with the person who said them.

One of the most respected historical figures who the LGBT community looks upon with respect has to be Dr. Martin Luther King. Yes, the Civil Rights Movement is not the same as the LGBT Movement, but his words ring true for many people and are universal in their relevance. There were too many to choose from, so I picked my favorites that I feel pertain to our situation best.

(BREAK)

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” This is a great quote and one where the people who are preventing all LGBT people from getting our rights need to keep in mind, especially those who focus on keeping transgender people from getting their rights.

This quote by King, “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools,” has a similar theme as one by Benjamin Franklin, which goes, “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” Looking through a long list of quotes, I saw this a lot.

Some of the other famous quotes from King that have found their use in the LGBT community are:

“It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.”

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

Since I already mentioned one of Franklin’s quotes, he has others that can be useful at times. Here they are: “A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.” I think some trans people need to take heed of this one, including me.

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” This one has been used a lot in the last seven years, as the Bush administration slowly eroded our liberties in the name of keeping us safe.

Another person who gets quoted often is Mahatma Gandhi. He said something that has been used against us by the so-called righteous evangelist Christians. He said, “Hate the sin, love the sinner.” I never knew he was the one to say that. I’m willing to bet the hard-core Christian fundamentalists would say it came from the Bible. We should challenge them on where the saying came from, to make them look bad. After you point out that this saying came from a non-Christian, you can give them another Gandhi sayings, “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

He also said, “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes,” and “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” That last one goes out to those armchair activists who complain about what others do, without getting off of their butts and helping.

Mark Twain has created some wonderful sayings over the course of his life, some of which we should uses when necessary. Here’s a couple that Joe Solmonese should pay attention to. “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything,” and “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

One of my most favorite quotes came from Mark Twain. It is such a perfect quote for those annoying people who have to comment on every single blog posting and sometime they say things just to get people mad. Twain said, “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” Hell, I know some people who remove all doubt years ago.

Some of the other good quotes from Twain are: “Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”

“Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.”

Twain never liked Congress, and here is one of his best on that subject. “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress.” Congress hasn’t changed much in the last 100 years.

One of the most used quote in the transgender community, in regards to Remembering Our Dead, is the one by George Santayana. He said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I love this quote so much that I even made my own version of his quote. I say, “Those who insist on not learning from the past will soon look foolish in the future.” I have seen people who live this daily.

George Bernard Shaw had another quote that fits into the same theme. He said, “If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.”

H.G. Wells had this one, “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” He also has one we can use against the Religious Right, “Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.”

I have always admired Theodore Roosevelt and he has some great quotes that we should keep in mind, even after we have a new president a year from now. He said, “Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President.” He also said, “To announce that there must be no criticism of the President . . . is morally treasonable to the American public.” It was one used against those lemming people who would follow Bush off a cliff

Here’s another one from Roosevelt, “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” And, this one is for all of the LGBT veterans, “A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.”

One that LGBT active duty service members can say came from Barry Goldwater: “You don’t have to be straight to shoot straight.”

Here’s one I like from Joseph Stalin. He said, “The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.” That was so true in the last two Presidential elections.

The most quoted person of all time has to be William Shakespeare. I use some of his quotes on a regular basis. My most favorite is one that could apply to Larry Craig and all of those other anti LGBT Republicans who spent a lot of energy vilifying LGBT people, before we found out about them. “The lady dost protest too much, methinks.” It came from “Hamlet” and it is meant to say that if a person “protests” greatly about a particular issue, they lose credibility. I see it as someone hiding something within themselves they don’t want the rest of the world to know about, thinking that by protesting a lot, it will protect them.

He has others that seem to fit well when confronting the bigots on the right. “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool,” and “Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind,” and “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.”

This one from “Romeo and Juliet” that’s perfect for the transgender community. “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” And, this one from “Hamlet” is always perfect for transgender people. “This above all: to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day; Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

He has others that can be used but LGBT people: “Assume a virtue, if you have it not.”

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”

“Et tu, Brute!”

“A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!”

And this one is a great one to use against those Religious Right that like to quote the Bible. “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.”

Here’s one I always like for us romantic lesbians. “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.”

I hope that you may find a use for some of the quotes I have here. I leave you with two more from Monica Helms (me.) “Mother Nature can think beyond binaries. Human Nature cannot,” and “There is no shame in failure. There is in failure to try.”

Maybe you would like to add some good quotes to this list?