David M. Halperin > Quotes

“Prior Walter, ravaged by AIDS and demoralized by his lover’s abandonment of him amid
the misery of his illness, encounters the dowdy Mormon mother of the clean-cut, square-jawed man his former boyfriend has run off with. This personage, newly arrived in New York from Utah, asks him curiously if he is a “typical” homosexual. “Me? Oh I’m stereotypical,” he replies grimly and defiantly, making an effort to overcome his pain and exhaustion. 'Are you a hairdresser?' she pursues. At which point Prior, breaking down and bursting into tears, exclaims, 'Well it would be your lucky day if I was because frankly . . .”
― David M. Halperin, How to Be Gay

“Davranışlara dair uzlaşımların olduğu kadar, duygulara dair uzlaşımların da farkına varmak ve kişisel yaşamın çetrefilli dokusunu bir eser, kültürel süreçlerin karmaşık ve rastlantısal bir kümelenmesi gibi yorumlamak konusunda kendimizi eğitmeliyiz. Kısaca, bizim en içeride yer alan, özgün ve özel deneyimlerimizin, aslında, Adrienne Rich'in takdire şayan ifadesindeki gibi 'müşterek, fuzuli/ve politik' olduğunu kabule hazır olmalıyız.”
― David M. Halperin, The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader

“Falling in love is thus the most conformist method of being an individual. Conversely, falling in love is the most original and spontaneous way to conform, perhaps the only way of conforming to social demands that will never make you look like a conformist. It is the one way that you can behave like everyone else and still claim, at the same time, that you did it your way.”
― David M. Halperin, How to Be Gay