“I went in with the beginner’s mind. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I never imagined 4,036 (same-sex) couples getting married over a month. (Y)ou just couldn’t escape from the perception ‘he’s just a single-issue person.’ I remember standing there at the window, and I swear to you, I resigned myself to not even being re-elected mayor. This is a much more conservative town than people give it credit for.”

“Today every gay or lesbian person in the country is on trial. The testimony brings up all of that ‘stuff’ that I keep pretending I’ve left behind. I grew up near Knoxville knowing I was gay, but never wanting to be. I dated girls, just like (plaintiff) Jeff did. I hid from myself. I became an Orthodox Jew in LA and almost got married because I did not want to be gay. When (lawyer David) Boies asked Jeff if he’d be in a more loving, stable relationship if he married a woman, it was not a throw-away. That’s what the NOM folks want you to believe. They want you to believe that if Jeff or me or so many others of us who were born homosexual would just marry a woman, the world would be a better place.”