Initiative petition to ban gay marriages is filed

Thursday, June 15, 2000 | 11:15 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- An initiative petition to amend the Nevada Constitution to prohibit gay marriages was filed today with county clerks around the state.

Sponsored by the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage, the proposal would add the sentence "Only a marriage between a male and a female person shall be recognized and given effect in this state."

The coalition was required to gather 44,009 signatures of registered voters to put the question before the voters in November. And there must be 10 percent of the registered voters in 13 of the 17 counties to qualify the petition. The coalition said it has more than the 44,009 signatures and will file the petition in all 17 counties.

The county clerks in rural Nevada and the registrars of voters in Clark and Washoe counties will start counting to determine if there is the necessary amount of signatures. If there are, then there will be a sampling taken of the signatures to determine if they are registered voters.

Richard Ziser, who headed the petition effort, said the coalition spent about $70,000 collecting the signatures.

The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada opposes the initiative effort which it called a case of bigotry.

There is already a section in Nevada law banning same-sex marriage. But Ziser said it should be in the Constitution so that court decisions in other states that may approve same-sex marriage, would not have any effect in Nevada.

The proposal would have to be passed in this election and again in 2002 before it became part of the Constitution.

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