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Artvoice: 
"5 Questions With... Carol Speser: Activist/Chaplain

Carol Speser is a long time activist in Buffalo. She has been a pioneer — founded the local Stonewall Democrats, organized the first outdoor pride celebration and is now the founder/director of Rainbow Spirit Rising. We asked her a few questions about issues of special importance to the LGBTQ community.

What’s the difference between gay marriage and civil union?A civil union is not a marriage. Civil unions are separate drinking fountains. The Constitution says: equal protection under the law. For the government to establish two separate institutions for American citizens stigmatizes same-sex couples as different, separate and less worthy. States like New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire reached the conclusion that they don’t work. They found them to encourage unequal treatment.

You know how it hits me personally? The idea of me being put into a separate legal class of citizens, scares me. I was born in 1948 and grew up here in Buffalo with Holocaust survivors in my life—like Gerda Klein. I heard personal stories told—uncut—because it had just happened—around dining room tables. So for me, being Jewish, the idea of the government passing legislation to put lesbian and gay couples into a separate, legal class of citizens, gives me a visceral whoosh of panic. ..."

Read more: http://artvoice.com/issues/v10n31/five_questions#ixzz1UN2QSxXe
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