The Gay Thing: Nevada Will Not Defend Gay Marriage Ban

Well, thank you, Catherine Cortez Masto! Recently, I took her to task for a baffling, insulting brief defending Nevada's ill-considered and disingenuous ban on same-sex marriage. I wrote to her and commented on her Twitter account, as did many furious marriage quality supporters. Almost immediately, Masto announced that she was going to reconsider her opinion and get back to us.

And get back to us, she did! She--and amazingly enough, our Republican Governor Brian Sandoval--have withdrawn the brief and will not defend the ban (originally known as Question 2). While this doesn't allow same-sex couples to marry, it makes the likelihood of that happening a much surer thing. Ms. Masto, you are back in my good graces!

[Excerpt]

Nevada officials won’t defend gay marriage ban

 

Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto announced Monday that she will not try to defend Nevada’s law blocking gay marriages. She said she has filed a motion with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to withdraw her Jan. 24 brief in support of Nevada’s Defense of Marriage constitutional amendment, which defines marriage as between one man and one woman. Gov. Brian Sandoval, through his office, said he agrees with Masto’s legal reasoning and the law is “no longer defensible in court.” The Republican governor is a former state attorney general and federal judge. . .

 

Read more at: Las Vegas Review-Journal

The Gay Thing: Nevada AG Defends Discriminatory Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment

Nevada's Democratic Attorney General, Catherine Cortez Masto, is defending Nevada's state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. As a person who voted for her (probably more than once), this makes me a little flabbergasted. Masto has a reputation for standing firm for what she believes in. And apparently what she believes in is comparing gay couples' relationships to incest and polygamy. Nice.

Image from source, Washington Blade

Nevada's constitutional amendment was dreamed up by a distasteful wanna-be politician named Richard Ziser, riding the early part of the anti-gay marriage amendment wave that swept the country during the early 2000s. The amendment had to be voted on twice, two years apart, and both times passed handily, based on the utterly disingenuous campaigns waged by Ziser. Remember, this is Nevada, a state with legal prostitution, quickie weddings and quickie divorces. We have slot machines in grocery stores and the quickie mart. You can get married by an Elvis impersonator at a drive-thru wedding chapel. At at the time of the amendment votes, we had the Who Wants to Marry a Multi-millionaire show from the MGM Grand, where the prize was a spouse. And of course who could forget Britney Spears' 3-day marriage, which occurred (annulment included) here in Las Vegas.

So, spare me the talk of the "sanctity of marriage," in Nevada. Particularly spare me any talk of sanctity or other religious terms when we're talking about civil marriage, not "holy matrimony." If there's anyplace pro-marriage equality activists have missed the boat, it was in shutting down any and all talk of religion, sanctity, blessed, holy, "God ordained," or any other such terms in a discussion about a legal contract. But I digress. . .

I'm want to do this when I get on this subject, because it personally affects me. I've been married to The Other Half for five and a half years, having tied the knot in Palm Springs when it was first legal. We are now legally married according to the IRS, and in 17 states plus Washington DC. We can drive 45 minutes to the California state line, and we're married! Back here in Nevada: roommates, under the law. And I expected Ms. Masto to be on my side.

I've written to Masto, and will post any response I get, provided it isn't merely a form letter.

[Excerpt]
 
Nevada AG invokes bigamy, incest to defend marriage ban

Ask the attorney general of Nevada about the definition of marriage, and she’ll tell you it doesn’t include the union of a same-sex couple. But in the same breath, she’ll tell you it also doesn’t include incest or bigamy either. . .

Read more at: The Washington Blade

Lawsuit Challenges Nevada's Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment

Image from Gay & Lesbian Nevada Resources

I find the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), their spinoffs, affiliated groups, and predecessors in the same effort, frankly, ridiculous. Their entire premise--that heterosexual marriage suffers some sort of damage if gay people get married--is flawed, and has zero evidence. But nowhere was the idea more silly, more disingenuous than it was in Nevada.

Nevada, home of the drive-thru wedding chapel. A place where you can meet someone, rock their world, and get married all in a day or two! You can get married by an Elvis impersonator, and if you change your mind--like Britney Spears did--you can get a quick annulment (or if you waited too long, a quickie divorce). An early state in the anti-gay marriage stakes, Nevada first proposed a state constitutional amendment in 2000. This was coincidentally the same year that Rick Rockwell "won" Darva Conger as his bride in the Las Vegas-based game show, Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? On friggin' FOX.

According to Las Vegas
City Life, Richard
Ziser has dreams
about men like this.
Who am I to argue?

So when a toady named Richard Ziser (with the help of local right-wing radio "talent" like Alan Stock) started to sell Nevada on his anti-gay amendment, the sell was the sanctity of marriage. In Nevada. Unfortunately, the gay community in Nevada and Las Vegas is a rather loose affiliation, unprepared for the steamroller that was coming. Even though it had to pass in consecutive votes to become an official amendment, it passed both times and it wasn't even close. For no other reason than to put a boot on gay couples' necks, discrimination was enshrined in the battle-born Nevada state constitution. Ziser later ran for office with the slogan, "Faith. Family. Freedom," which shows you a clue to his theocratic aims. He lost. Good.

Anyway, I'm hoping that the lawsuit filed this week undoes the nasty work Ziser wrought. I hope his entry in Wikipedia goes down as a black mark in our history, and that at least one of his grandkids gets gay married.

[Excerpt]


Lambda Legal Files Federal Lawsuit Seeking Marriage Equality in Nevada

Today, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund took what one of its lawyers calls "a strategic step" in the national effort to advance marriage equality by filing a federal lawsuit in Nevada seeking equal marriage rights for eight same-sex couples in the state. . .

Read more at: MetroWeekly

Nevada's Ban on Same-sex Marriage to Stay

I didn't have a blog back when Nevada voted (in successive elections) to add a ban on same-sex marriage to the state constitution. I was forced to gripe by way of letters to the editor (one of which was published), and arguing with the local right-wing talk radio hosts via their message board. It was all for naught, and the measure passed.

It was a tremendously short-sighted, and--as is typical of these things--dishonest campaign. The usual "won't somebody please think of the children?!?" cries were heard, though how they rationally applied were never clearly spelled out. It boiled down to a religious argument, which should be insufficient to pass a law, let alone a constitutional amendment in the United States. To top it all off, the biggest argument used was "the sanctity of marriage." In Nevada. Primarily in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Remember, this is the state where Britney Spears famously got married--and then unmarried--on a whim. This is the state with marriages officiated by Elvis impersonators. This is a state with drive-thru wedding chapels. And lest we forget, this is a state that hosted a game show, where the lucky winning woman won a husband. So using "the sanctity of marriage" as an argument here was at best disingenuous, and at worst outright lying. The man who spearheaded the amendment, Richard Ziser, succeeded in that dream, but was crushed when he tried to leverage his big win into a run against Senator Harry Reid. Short story: epic fail.

Years have now passed, and the times? There a-changin.' Same-sex marriage is now legal in four states, and remains in flux in a fifth. There are a few others out there toying with the idea. And Nevada? The state that turned weddings into an industry? Apparently, we're stickin' to our guns. For some reason. Too bad, since the revenue generated by making it legal would probably be bigger than in any other state. We're party central, after all. Stupid.

[Excerpt]

Experts: No change in sight for state’s gay marriage ban

Local experts say Nevada probably won't be legalizing same-sex marriage any time soon, following recent decisions affirming gay marriage in Iowa and Vermont, but the emerging trend could help turn public sentiment here.

This issue sparks the passions of those opposed to gay marriage on the basis of conservative religious values and gay marriage supporters, who seek validation and equality. . .

Read more at: The Las Vegas Sun

Same-sex Marriage Ban Costing Las Vegas Money

Photo from source, LVRJ

Here's a big duuuhhh moment. Las Vegas (and the state of Nevada) are known as the marriage capital of the world. We have big extravagant weddings, fleets of limos, fancy wedding chapels. We also have little po-dunk chapels with Elvis impersonators officiating drunken unions of people like Britney Spears. But one place we missed the boat was same-sex marriage.

Some years ago, an unpleasant man named Richard Ziser, with the help of equally unpleasant right-wing radio host Alan Stock, managed to get a constitutional amendment passed (twice!) to restrict marriage to one man-one woman. There was much hypocrisy involved, with a call to morality and "faith." The ironies were abundant.

First, we are a state where gambling is legal, prostitution is legal in many counties, cigarettes are smoked in public (horrors!), booze is consumed with abandon, and our strip clubs are legendary. Also, Ziser (a protestant) and Stock (Jewish) were mightily aided in their effort by the Mormon Church. Mormons have a heavy influence in Sin City--ironically enough. But as far as I know, the three religious influences here rarely mix well. Unless you give them an easy target.

There was no organization in place with enough power to stop them. Nobody stood up and said, "Civil rights of the minority should never be voted upon by the majority." And let's face it, it is very easy to vote against other people, especially when you get to feel morally superior.

The amendment passed handily, and is now in force. But the state that is minutes to the south of Las Vegas has now legalized same-sex marriage. And gays (like yours truly and The Other Half) have gone or are going there in droves to get hitched! When you figure that my marriage--a very simple affair--cost around $600, and that most people are going to do it up a whole lot bigger than we did. . .well, California is raking it in. And Las Vegas, Reno and the rest of Nevada have missed the boat. And in a time when most cities are hurting, and Las Vegas now comes in third in tourism. . .well, I say we blame Richard Ziser. Thanks. . .DICK.

Side note: The comments section of the Las Vegas Review-Journal surprised even me. I expect a junior high school level of discourse on gay topics at Free Republic. Any AOL News story can also be expected to pull in sub-literate bigots on any topic. But I was especially distressed to see such nastiness, and a complete lack of class from many of the commenters found at the R-J.

[Excerpt]

Same-sex marriage ban might be costing Nevada

Read it at: Las Vegas Review-Journal

And for a great ribbing of Richard Ziser, go to: Las Vegas City Life