Daily Wildcat: Do you think marriage equality will be passed in Arizona?

Greg Daniels: Yes. Without a doubt. It’s just a matter of when.

How does marriage equality personally affect you?

I identify as gay and as queer, so it directly affects me. I’m not necessarily in, like, a relationship at this moment, but I still feel like just … even if I wasn’t planning on getting married immediately, that at least I knew it was an option because, as of right now, I feel like I’m a second-class citizen. Like I don’t have access to something the rest of the population has. 

How do you think Arizona will be affected if marriage equality is passed?

I think it will help turn [the state]. If not turn the state blue, it will definitely turn it purple. That’s kind of my hope … just to kind of like … to build seeds into people’s minds, especially conservatives’ minds. That you don’t have to be a Democrat to support it. You could be Republican and support it. Like my dad is [a] full-on red Republican, but he supports it. 

How do you think the UA will be affected if marriage equality is passed?

I think the UA is like the liberal hot spot of Tucson, and Tucson’s like the liberal hot spot of Arizona … so I think — and actually, I’m pretty sure we at one point had some kind of domestic partner benefits or something in Tucson, but I’m pretty sure it got repealed. So I guess I don’t really know necessarily how it would impact the U of A. I think it would just give [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning] students hope, I guess.

What do you think will happen if marriage equality doesn’t pass in Arizona?

If it doesn’t pass, it’s not going to be pretty. There’s going to be a lot of protests. There’s going to be a lot of political action. It’s just going to light a fire under us like there hasn’t been before, but I don’t foresee it happening though. I foresee it coming to a situation where, if we have a Republican governor, it’s going to be that person’s choice as to whether or not they let [the law] through. And if they don’t, all hell is going to break loose. I don’t foresee that happening either. I’m pretty sure Fred DuVal is going to be our next governor, and he’s really committed to marriage equality and LGBT and queer issues, so I think when he wins, it’ll just be a sigh of relief for a lot of us. 

Is there anything else you want to add?

I just wanted to make sure that I, like, also include the caveat that marriage equality isn’t like the end-all, be-all, and that there are a lot more issues that are pressing, like passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. So I think marriage equality is an important issue, but there’s a lot of other more important issues, and I think that if this passes, then that’ll just give us the push to be able to pass all the rest of the laws that we need passed in this state. 

_______________

Follow Meghan Fernandez on Twitter.