Anti-gay campaign debated on show

Stacy J. Willis

Tuesday, June 20, 2000 | 11:07 a.m.

Bob Fulkerson's hands trembled.

He sat on the set of "POV Vegas" -- lights and cameras aimed at him -- preparing to debate the leader of the campaign against gay marriage, Richard Ziser.

Ziser's group, the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage, has put the issue on the political radar in Nevada. Although it is not legal for gays to marry here, his group aims to change the state Constitution to prevent homosexual marriages from being recognized here should they ever become legal anywhere else.

But to Fulkerson, the issue is more than political, it is personal. In addition to being the director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, he is also a gay man in a committed relationship.

His posture was rigid as he listened to Ziser say children should not be taught that same-sex relationships are acceptable, and that heterosexual marriages would be denigrated should homosexual marriages be validated. His brow furrowed when it became apparent that Ziser opposed gay couples having the same rights to insurance benefits and hospital visitations that heterosexual married couples have.

And he shook his head when Ziser said gays can and should try to become heterosexual.

Then Fulkerson leaned over to Ziser during a commercial and said, "People like you are the reason so many teens commit suicide. It's because of people like you. They hear people say that there is something wrong with them, and they know they can't change -- and it becomes hopeless."

The debate was the first between the two sides since the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage submitted to the state about 121,000 petition signatures last week. They need less than 45,000 valid signatures to put the measure on the November ballot.

"We have the support of a lot of family-oriented people," Ziser said. "It is an extremely wide coalition."

Fulkerson conceded that "Nevada and the U.S. are not ready to accept gay marriage," but, he said, "this effort is just discriminatory. Its sole purpose is to whip up anti-gay bigotry."

The coalition's volunteer base is supported by several conservative religious groups, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, the former Catholic bishop of Las Vegas, Daniel Walsh, asked priests and parishes to support the traditional family but not to support Ziser's effort because, he said, it fostered ill-will toward gays.

But Ziser said the measure is needed "to protect the laws of the state" in case a "homosexual activist files a lawsuit seeking recognition of a status equal to a heterosexual marriage."

"This isn't about civil rights," Ziser said. "It's about the true definition of marriage, which is between a man and a woman and has been since the beginning of time."