Pearls Before Swine Quotes

“While there is no shame in being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex – or even straight (but not narrow) – there is most certainly shame and dishonor in being a homophobe, a transphobe and a bigot.”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“While there is no shame in being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex – or even straight (but not narrow) – there is most certainly shame and dishonor in being a homophobe, a transphobe and a bigot.”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“If being transgender were a job, no-one would apply.

Imagine actually applying to be an outcast everywhere you go, feeling out of place even inside your own body, even when looking in a mirror, at old family photo albums, being continually denied by family members you held dear, being barely recognized or even acknowledged by old acquaintances, school or college friends, and taking the brunt of bigotry and spitefulness from colleagues and supervisors?

Does being excluded from family events, work parties, and being constantly attacked by religious groups and people sound like fun? How about constantly wondering if you will wake up with civil rights the next morning, or if you will be arrested or beaten up or murdered in the streets by someone you don’t know, or in your own home by someone you do know? How about the likelihood that your family would dress your dead body as someone else they would prefer you to have been for your memorial service, while dead-naming you and disrespecting the person you were and the things you had accomplished in your life? Sound like the job for you? Apply within.

If there was a CHOICE, then my dears, EVERYONE would walk away.”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“Who is the more courageous? The macho gay-basher who roars their hatred, or the gay or trans person who faces threats of violence and harm on a daily basis, and carries on being honest about who they are regardless?”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“The very worst thing a parent or teacher or other care-giver can do, is to ignore bullying, to ignore the plight of a child being bullied, or trivialize or even blame a child for the bullying actions of others.”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“Interestingly enough, every time I corner a homophobic religious fanatic bigot with scientific facts which they cannot argue or disprove, they either dismiss me as ‘anti-God’ and a ‘secular humanist’ or they start spouting reams of misapplied and irrelevant ‘scripture’ at me, like that will in any way, shape or form prove anything… Which just proves to me that common sense and actual reason doesn't come into it. Only very blind hatred.”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“I believe most people are good, even if only deep down – and even if you have to dig a little. Some people tempt me to pick up a shovel and actually find out”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“Peace, shalom, salaam – to all – in our homes, in our streets, in our countries, on our world, and most importantly, in our hearts and minds – not just for one day of the year, or two, but for every day, and for every year, always.”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“Many times we refer to people who express hate or behave in a barbaric, savage ‘inhuman’ way as ‘animals’, but on closer inspection we can clearly see that this is in fact, an insult to animals”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“Love yourself. Someone has to. Sure, some people will hate you for who and what you are – but they're not perfect either”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“Usually, people who ask ‘do you know who I am?’ don't have a clue themselves”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“If you stick your head in the sand like an ostrich, pretending you don't exist – why get upset when the world agrees with you?”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“I don’t think it matters so much who we love – what matters most is that we love.”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“Why is it that when people who use a word like ‘tranny’ to describe transgender people, are told, by a transgender person, that the word is derogatory and offensive towards transgender people, they rally and insist that it isn't? To deny this in the face of someone who is on the receiving end of this abuse – and who has just informed you that it is offensive – only adds to and compounds the abuse.

To claim that a transgender person is ‘over reacting’ when insulting terms are used against trans people, and that a cisgender person is easily capable of understanding life from a transgender perspective... While making facetious statements like ‘just because you're confused about your gender...’ only adds injury to the insult. You clearly do NOT understand, and you've just proved it.

To crown it all, saying in your defense that you're ‘not transphobic’ because you watch ‘tranny porn’ does NOT make you a cis-ally to transgender people!”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“To suggest that LGBTI protests against any proposal to amend the Constitution to remove sexual orientation or gender protections are 'pointless' due to a perception that there are enough voices of reason in all parties to oppose it, is counter-productive – because as we can see in the USA as a good current example – THERE ARE, UNTIL THERE AREN'T.”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“Our people need to stop being victims. We need to fight back. Get tougher. Being gay, being trans, being peace loving, being effeminate – is no reason to not be an ass-kicking terror. Live for the best, prepare for the worst.”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“If the people who institute civil partnerships for gay couples think they sound 'just as good as marriage' - why don't they get 'civl partnershipped' then? I suppose because 'marriage' has a nicer ring to it - and that is reserved for straight people.”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“I can understand backward patriarchal reasoning and opinions coming from a male, but from a woman – and of all people, from a leader of women? That says something profound about the nature of that leadership – and, if nothing else – what it says about the followers is not very flattering at all”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“If all people were to be judged by ‘right and wrong’, nobody would be wholly right or wholly wrong - for have not all people ‘sinned and fallen from the glory of God’? It seems more than a little unfair (and unhinged) that some folks with at least as much ‘sin’ themselves as any gay or trans person, like to jump up and down and point fingers at what other people are up to in their own lives.”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“When facts are misrepresented in order to serve an opinion or to promote it aggressively – especially an opinion which demonstrably results in people being victimized, persecuted and their lives destroyed in many places in the world, it should be a matter of concern to everyone who wants people to be treated equally, fairly and justly.”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“16 days of activism? I don't know about you folks, but I'm an activist every single day”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“Is the drive to refuse gay blood motivated by a fear of contracting HIV/AIDS, or does it speak of the irrational fear that receiving blood from gay people will somehow make them gay?”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“It’ is for objects, not people”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“Isn't it strange that having a dick automatically makes a man, but having a vagina isn't enough to make me a woman?”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“People attacking a group from outside will simply cause that group to close ranks and unify and become even stronger – which is why, knowing this, they will try to attack the group from the inside and turn parts of the whole against itself.”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“How many innocent victims of hate crime does it take before it becomes wrong enough to put a stop to?

For us, one is already too many. For those who hate us, a thousand, a hundred thousand – a million, or even all of us – is not enough.”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“While many people define being a man or a woman as being dependent on reproductive capacity, it is worth noting (should such a superficial argument present itself) that there are many males and females who are born male or female and cannot reproduce either – and yet they are not considered ‘not male’ or ‘not female’? This is a hypocritical standard that is only applied to judge transgender people.”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“Every government is morally obliged to care for its citizens – including people whose needs are defined under ‘gender identity’ or ‘sexual orientation’ – and to exclude such provisions is to deny the humanity, worth and existence of such people”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“Some children are threatened with loss of privileges such as money, cell phones, cars or even eviction from home if they do not ‘toe-the-line’ and ‘act straight’. I don't think parents who do such things consider for a moment the kind of irreparable emotional damage they are doing to their children – or that they’re thinking beyond their own feelings about the situation – which will not change or go away simply because of their denial of it.”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“Sorry to disappoint you, parents – but when your kids come out as gay, bi or transgender, it is not about you.”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine