As time goes by, we're getting more accepting of the differences between one another - whether it's gay or transgender, whether it's black or white - but there's still a lot of people in the world who don't feel that they can express themselves as they want.
Alesha Dixon
On 'Glee,' we often tackle the tough topics that young people face - in fact, my recurring character, Wade 'Unique' Adams, is a transgender teenager who finds herself navigating a lot of the same problems many young people face around the globe.
Alex Newell
Yes, I am transgendered but I also am a cross-dresser - I dress as a woman. It's not that I just want to be seen as a female in our society, I'm also a drag queen and a performer - there are many levels there.
Alexis Arquette
It's very important to me that people accept me as a transgendered female. But it's ridiculous to a lot of people and I understand that.
I want parents out there to know that it's totally natural for kids to make believe and play games. It does not mean your child is going to be transgendered. And even if it were true, why is it such a horrible thing?
A lot of people, when they look at the whole trans thing, they think,'Oh, you're transgender, and in the fashion industry, which is very pro-LGBT, so you don't have any problems because it's a progressive place.' But that's not the reality.
Andreja Pejic
I definitely did look back into the past when I was a teenager for transgender icons, like a famous model called Tula in the 1970s-'80s who starred as a 'Bond' girl.
With the removal of questions about gayness and transgender status in the Census, we really stand to lose a lot of the progress that has been made, and certainly not to make further progress. In order to have a fair system, you need a system you can measure.
Andrew Solomon
What I would love to happen is to have people at the top of their game - straight, gay, cisgender, transgender, whatever - to volunteer with us, as long as they have something of value to offer and they see the value in our community.
Angelica Ross
I've always been transgender, and I always will be. Having said that, my spirit is feminine. If you had to divide humanity into two groups, I would sit with the women.
Anohni
As a transgendered artist, I have always occupied a place outside of the mainstream. I have gladly paid a price for speaking my truth in the face of loathing and idiocy.
Usually, when you are an ethnic person or a trans person, in your average, everyday, unsophisticated television show, you are there for that reason. And they clearly justify and overexplain why. You very rarely see a transgender actor playing the part of a grocery-store clerk without having to say, 'Oh, look at that trans person.'
B. D. Wong
I think what you're seeing is a profound recognition on the part of the American people that gays and lesbians and transgender persons are our brothers, our sisters, our children, our cousins, our friends, our co-workers, and that they've got to be treated like every other American. And I think that principle will win out.
Barack Obama
I am very proud of the role I played in getting legal equality for people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, and in helping get rid of the prejudice by being visible about it, helping to block the conviction of Bill Clinton of impeachment.
Barney Frank
These kids at the Ali Forney Center are literally dumped by their families because of the fact that they are lesbian, gay, or transgender - this organization really is saving lives.
Bea Arthur
I remember in 2004, I had three gorgeous transgender models on the runway. That was my strength, in a way. That I did what I thought was gonna work, and I never paid attention to the industry's rules.
Betsey Johnson
I believe marriage equality is a simple change that sends a powerful message. It is a chance for us to say, as a nation, to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex Australians: your love is equal under the law.
Bill Shorten
Everyone has people in their lives that are gay, lesbian or transgender or bisexual. They may not want to admit it, but I guarantee they know somebody.
Billie Jean King
The struggle isn't just about being straight or gay or transgender - it's a human struggle. That's always really been my kind of starting point: If you're out there and you're odd, come over to my house.
Boy George
I wanted people not to care about whether you were gay, straight, black, white, transgender, whatever it may be... That being said, there's more work to be done... I still want to change the world, absolutely.
Really go out of your way to hire women, people of color, homosexuals, transgendered people - go out of your way to hire them.
To its credit, Twitter is at least making an effort to curb hate speech towards transgender people, training its staff how to respond.
The main thing Twitter needs to focus on are implementing its rules more uniformly. If outing a transgender woman is against Twitter's rules, that needs to be implemented every time.
I consider myself true, which, I know, some people look at as radical, but I enjoy the normalcies of life. I'm not out there trying to transform things, but somehow, by being easy to talk to, and easy to look at, and on a mainstream TV show, I think that I'm helping the public's opinions about transgendered people to change, slowly.
I would say what's really interesting about me personally is that I've taken my transgender experience, and I've looked at it on the bright side, on the positive side.
I would hope that one day there will be a time when it's not so much about transgender, it's just people will just see us as women.
For me, I know I am a trans activist and I try my best to stand up when the time is right, but at the same time, I don't always want to be considered transgender around my friends and people at my daughter's school. I just want to be considered a woman.
It's important to have transgender representation because we represent the forthcoming generation, and their new perception on the standard of beauty - which I believe is being true to yourself, loving yourself and others.
I don't know any lingerie brands that really embrace transgender women at all, to be honest.
The way I see things is that, I think that transgender people are super brave. If you're a female to male, male to female, if you're that brave to take control of your own body and make it however you want it to be, more power to you.
I want to be able to supply the knowledge that transgender women need in order to live peacefully and become accepted among all men and women.
There's a gender in your brain and a gender in your body. For 99 percent of people, those things are in alignment. For transgender people, they're mismatched. That's all it is. It's not complicated, it's not a neurosis. It's a mix-up. It's a birth defect, like a cleft palate.
I thought, transgender people are much worse off than I am. That's why they're willing to risk everything to be who they are. But the older I got, the harder it got to stay in my body.
For me, it was never a question of whether or not I was transgender. It was a question of what I'd be able to handle transitioning and having to do it in the public eye. One of the issues that was hard for me to overcome was the fear of that.
A lot of parents never speak to their transgender kids again; that's not the case in my family.
Obviously the transgender movement has not progressed in the way that the gay and lesbian movement has. But I'm an activist - that's just the kind of person I am.
When I realised I was transgender I was so afraid of what my transition would do to everyone else in my life and how they would react to it and would I be rejected?
Being LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender) in Russia is anything but fun.
I feel, in the sense that if you're heterosexual, if you're bisexual, if you're gay, if you're a lesbian, if you're transgender, whatever the vibe is, that's what you represent. I've always found it quite strange that we always like to try and define people and say this is how it is, and this is how it should be.
It's been a long road of self-transformation for me, and I'm so grateful for the care I received at NYU Langone with Dr. Rachel Bluebond-Langer, one of the best transgender surgery specialists in the country.
When I would walk down the runway back in the late 90s, I could feel the tension from others who knew I was transgender. I could see the joy on the faces of people from my community, elated to see someone represent them.
I have a transgender nephew on my father's side of the family. So I'm extremely aware of how important it is to support and advocate for young people who are experiencing that in their lives.
The Trevor Project provides crisis-intervention and suicide-prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning teens and young adults. It's truly a lifeline to so many young people who just need someone to listen to them.
MMA is the most dangerous sport there is for a transgender, with all the body contact, I know that.
I don't believe that a transgender fighter should have to disclose her personal medical history to other female fighters before they fight.
Transgender women especially feel like we have to fit the binary system to a T in order to not be recognized as trans.
It took me about a year to understand and to feel the support from the transgender community.
If the UFC would listen to reason on transgendered athletes, it could help change the sport for the better.
Where I came from, it was more shocking to be an atheist than to be transgender.
I consider myself a woman. I happen to fall into the transgender category, but I rather describe myself as a woman first.
