At a glance: What they said about Oklahoma City Council vote on sexual orientation

• Ward 3 Councilman Larry McAtee: “Oklahoma City has shown it is a thriving municipality with much to be thankful for. It would be foolish to jeopardize our success without a proven need for doing so.”

• Ward 4 Councilman Pete White: “I appreciate everybody being here. ... I wish you'd be here on the day that we approved the social services budget to take care of the poor and the hungry and those people in Oklahoma City. I'd like to see this council (room) full of people saying, ‘I want you to spend more money on that.'”

• Ward 1 Councilman Gary Marrs: “We respond to everybody. We respond to their heart attacks, we respond to their fires, we respond to their car wrecks. We deal with them on an equal basis. We don't have the luxury of saying, ‘We're not going to do that because we don't condone their lifestyle.'”

• Paul Blair, pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond: “Why are we creating a special class of protection for someone's behavior? We're not talking about civil rights. This is not a gender, or this is not a race.”

• James A. Huff, Oklahoma City: “Women were not always considered equal. The various religious faiths were not always considered equal. The handicapped were not always considered equal. ... There is no rational reason to oppose the inclusion of sexual orientation in the policy's language.”