In some ways, you might see the arguments being made in San Francisco this week as a mutual-compliment session. The gay plaintiffs and their supporters are offering the biggest vote of confidence in the venerable institution of marriage that the old warhorse has gotten in a long time. They want to be part of it enough to wage a federal lawsuit and a national campaign, and see it as something that confers meaning above and beyond a concept like “domestic partnership.”

And, from the other side, Prop. 8 proponent Hak-Shing William Tam, for one, seems convinced of homosexuality’s singularly attractive force—and of how powerless heterosexuals are to resist its blandishments. According to the A.P.’s Lisa Leff, reporting from the courtroom yesterday, Tam’s deposition included the following observation: “My daughter told me her classmates chose to become lesbians and experiment with it after they noticed that same-sex marriage, they think it is a cool thing,” Tam said. “They have some problem getting dates with boys, so same-sex marriage, since it is in the air, they think, ‘Oh, why not try girls.’ ”

Read the rest of Margaret Talbot’s New Yorker article here.