I filed the first gay rights bill in Massachusetts history in 1972 in the legislature, one of the first in the country.

I'm not a gay rights activist.

Gay rights are human rights.

Civil rights and women's rights and gay rights all take time in this country.

I was still closeted, but from the day I decided to run for office, knowing that I was gay, I decided that I would, of course, still be closeted but that I would work very hard for gay rights. It would be totally dishonorable, being gay, not to do that. So I had that as kind of a secondary agenda.

It may be that John and others didn't see this case as a gay-rights case.