“People in California have to be prepared to march in celebration or in protest. If he signs it, then there should be a massive celebration, and if he doesn’t sign it, there should be a humongous demonstration of anger, which there wasn’t last time. It’s shocking that the gay population in California has been invisible on all this. You also need to have a massive protest before Schwarzenegger acts. Tell him, ‘Sign that bill or else.’ You need to have a lot of angry gay people. You tell him, ‘We are angry you sold us down the river so far, and we won’t let you do it again.’”

“My gut wrenched when I read of Sen. Larry Craig’s bathroom arrest. I remembered my own late-night encounter with the law at a Garden State Parkway rest stop following a political dinner in north Jersey. I pulled into the rest stop, parked my car, flashed my headlights, which was ‘the signal,’ and waited. Glancing in my rearview mirror, I saw a state trooper approaching. I desperately tried to convince the trooper of my innocence, showing him my former prosecutor’s badge, a gift from the office when I left. The trooper radioed his office and returned. ‘I never want to see you here again,’ he said. I survived for another day. I was in my late 20s. It would be another 25 years before my parallel lives collided and I was coerced out of the ‘closet.’”

“I’m an atheist. But I absolutely love religions and the rituals. Even though I don’t believe in God. We celebrate pretty much every religion in our family with the kids. They love it, and when they say, ‘Are we Jewish?’ or ‘Are we Catholic?’ I say, ‘Well, I’m not, but you can choose when you’re 18. But isn’t this fun that we do seders and the Advent calendar?’”