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Neil G. Giuliano is an American gay rights activist. He was the former four-term Republican mayor (1994-2004) of Tempe, Arizona. He chaired the commission in charge of hosting the third[…]
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Giuliano sees general unity on most issues save, perhaps, for gay marriage.

Topic: Divisions Within the LGBT Community

Neil Giuliano: Well I think more and more LGBT people realize that we’re all on the same page for equality and fairness, to be treated equally and to be treated fairly within society. There are some folks within the community who believe that marriage equality is not something that we have to push for immediately, that they would settle, quote/unquote, to use some terms, we’d settle for civil unions in that case. But really the role of movement leadership, I think, is to articulatea vision for what is right and for where we should end up. And we realize that there’s going to be steps along the way to get there, but the vision is full equality in this society, and that’s marriage equality, that’s being able to serve openly in the military, that’s being able to work without fear of being fired because you want to live authentically and live openly. I think there’s more and more agreement within the LBGT community than there is division, and I think part of our role as LGBT leaders is to focus on where we’re united and bring people together.

 

 

Recorded on: Mar 4 2008


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