Queer, There and Everywhere Quotes

“I cannot understand those so-called 'normal' people who believe that a man should love only a woman, and a woman love only a man. If this were so, then it disregards completely the spirit, the personality, and the mind, and stresses the importance of the physical body.”
― Sarah Prager, Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World

“The Netherlands became the first country ever to legalize marriage equality in 2001.”
― Sarah Prager, Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World

“I do not understand the difference between a man and a woman, and believing only in the eternal value of love, I cannot understand these so-called ‘normal’ people who believe that a man should love only a woman, and a woman love only a man. If this were so, then it disregards completely the spirit, the personality, and the mind, and stresses the importance of the physical body.”
― Sarah Prager, Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World

“They devoured books and pulld legendary stunts, like the time they set off a small bomb next to one of their teachers during class to protest his refusal to teach them about Marx.”
― Sarah Prager, Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World

“We know achieving queer rights is possible because history shows us how it's been done before. And we know that we will adapt to survive and thrive, no matter what happens around us”
― Sarah Prager, Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World

“The story of worldwide queerness is being written and rewritten across the globe every day, as mainstream attitudes change and understanding grows”
― Sarah Prager, Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World

“Thinking about the amount of progress yet to be accomplished can be overwhelming, but when we put it in the context of all of time, we see that we've been going in the right direction for hundreds of years and that queer people have always accomplished the unimaginable.”
― Sarah Prager, Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World

“But even with so much trailblazing up until this point in history, there's no doubt that the queer community still has a lot of fighting to do. Fear of rejection, physical violence, execution, conversion therapy and more still haunt millions of queer people's daily lives.”
― Sarah Prager, Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World

“Queer people are as much a real, interconnected part of the story of our world as everyone else we learn about in school. It matters that we say and demonstrate how queerness itself is as old as time, because people still find it counterintuitive to their conceptions of history.”
― Sarah Prager, Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World

“There has been no time in human history when queer genders and sexualities didn't exist. From aboriginal Australia to Japanese folk culture to American slave plantations, people of all faiths, races, heritages, and cultures have been queer-every color of the rainbow and then some.”
― Sarah Prager, Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World

“The language we use to describe people's identities matters; these words have a great deal of power. There are literally hundreds of ways to describe queerness in English alone and it's important to respect the exact terms a person uses to self-identify.”
― Sarah Prager, Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World

“The version of history we learn in school puts a straight cisgender mask on almost everyone. But the truth is, queer people have been part of history throughout every era, on every continent. Being queer isn't new; queer people have existed for as long as people have existed!”
― Sarah Prager, Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World

“What is remarkable, and at once unsurprising, is that all twenty-three of these queer people lived with such vivid, incandescent variety. Diversity is one of the only constants that queerness has always had, and our unique individuals are connected precisely because they diverged from what society expected”
― Sarah Prager, Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World

“Queer history is world history: the stories of every culture from every era. It is sometimes a tragic tale of persecution, other times the heroic triumph of love and pride over discrimination. It is also the story of innovation- the discovery of new ways to be alive and be human, of new contributions to global societies.”
― Sarah Prager, Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World

“No one is alone in being queer, and shedding light on past queer identities can help us dig for the whole story on any number of historical figures. Recognizing the world's rich history of queerness helps reduce homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia and helps welcome queer identities to the mainstream with love and acceptance. That's important, not only for queer people but for anyone who feels left out of or incapable of relating to the popular version of history most of us know.”
― Sarah Prager, Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World