Drive targets same-sex marriages

Monday, Jan. 3, 2000 | 11:30 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages will kick off the political year in Nevada.

Candidates for political office won't be able to sign up until May 1. So the early focus of this election year is on voter-initiated petitions to change the state Constitution or the law, and the same-sex marriage ban is expected to be one of the first.

A group called the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage intends to file an initiative petition Tuesday with Secretary of State Dean Heller to place the issue on the November election ballot.

And state Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, is putting the finishing touches on another initiative petition, which would seek to raise the gaming tax.

Gay and lesbian organizations are already discussing strategy to combat the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage's effort, which they see as an attack on equal treatment.

Nevada law already specifies that marriage is between male and female, said Richard Ziser, chairman of the coalition seeking the ban. But his group wants to "solidify it in the constitution."

The concern, Ziser said, is that courts in other states may allow same-sex marriages. Under the "full faith and credit clause" of the U.S. Constitution, Nevada would be required to recognize such marriages, he said.

"This keeps a judge from another state from telling Nevadans how to define marriage," said Ziser, who formerly owned a casino token manufacturing business in Las Vegas.

His organization will have to gather 44,009 signatures of registered voters by June 20 to get the issue on the November ballot. The petition must contain 10 percent of the registered voters in 13 of the 17 counties. If the initiative passes in November, it would go on the ballot again in 2002 before it becomes part of the state Constitution.

Gay and lesbian groups are beginning to plan a response, said Lee Plotkin, a political columnist for the gay publication Las Vegas Bugle. An anti-gay petition in 1994 failed to get enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, he said, predicting that the same thing will happen this time.

"The reality is this is a fund-raising gimmick by some people who don't have the desire to protect existing marriages but rather prevent others from creating marriages of their own," says Plotkin. "If they were truly concerned about protecting marriage, they would be doing something to improve on their own divorce rate of 50 percent.

"What's truly remarkable are these are the same people who said gays and lesbians were incapable of maintaining relations. Now they want to prevent us from having equal treatment under the law."

Plotkin says Ziser is a failed political candidate for the Clark County School Board who was beaten in the primary election by a gay Republican. "He may be smarting from that loss," Plotkin said.

"The reality here is they are trying to gather tens of thousands of signatures to build a mailing list to perpetuate their causes," Plotkin said. "Anybody who is conned into signing this petition can expect a mailbox filled with right-wing material."

That won't be the only petition organizers hope to get on the ballot. Neal said he will file an initiative petition to raise the casino tax as soon as it's been checked to ensure it is in its correct legal form.

Neal's petition calls for imposing a new license fee of 5 percent on all gross gaming revenue that exceeds $1 million per month. The new fee would be added to the present tax is 6 1/4 percent.

The gaming proposal would amend the Nevada law, not the constitution. Neal would still have to gather the same number of signatures as a constitutional amendment, but he would have until Nov. 14. If successful, the gaming petition would be presented to the 2001 Legislature.

The Legislature would have 40 days to approve or reject it. If it is not passed, the issue would go on the 2002 election ballot for the voters to decide. The Legislature could also pass an alternative plan but the Neal petition would still be on the ballot.