Pushing morals of marriage issue

Stacy J. Willis

Monday, May 8, 2000 | 11:35 a.m.

Religion and politics are inseparable bedfellows to Richard Ziser.

A church president and Christian apologist, he spends much of his time in his tiny gray cubicle in the back of a store-front political office.

His mission: to prevent gays and lesbians from legally marrying.

Ziser is the chairman of the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage, a group that aims to amend the Nevada Constitution with this language: "Only a marriage between a male and a female person shall be recognized and given effect in this state."

The group is circulating petitions intended to force the proposed constitutional amendment to a ballot question in November.

And while the coalition has tried to organize through conservative religious organizations, it has met with limited success. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints heavily backs the initiative, but the Catholic bishop instructed priests not to circulate petitions.

"It's not a matter of wanting to deny homosexuals their rights," Ziser says in the coalition office while two quiet women pore over lists of voter names and addresses on the other side of his cube wall.

"That's not it. It's a moral issue. All of the major world religions define marriage to be between a man and a woman. All consider homosexuality to be a sin." Gay marriages are not legally recognized in the state today, but Ziser fears that gay couples will marry legally in another state and that Nevada will be forced to recognize their marriages under the U.S. Constitution's full faith and credit clause.

Two weeks ago Vermont Gov. Howard Dean signed a "civil union" bill that will give gay and lesbian couples the same rights and benefits afforded married couples under state law.

Thirty-two other states have passed legislation that recognizes only heterosexual marriages. "If a same-sex marriage is legitimized by the state, then (gays and lesbians) have the full authority of the state to go into schools and teach this as a legitimate alternative to marriage between a man and woman, " Ziser said. "The Bible says that it is not."

Across town at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center, Acting Director Kathy Gillespie calls the petition "divisive and unnecessary."

"We view this issue as an equal-rights issue. There are certain rights that marriage conveys. All we are asking for is equal rights and equal protections.

"If I am sick and incapacitated, I want my partner to have the authority to talk to the doctor for me. If I die, I want my partner to inherit my estate. Many times, if we go to the extra effort to get lawyers to draft these documents without marriage, they are ignored," Gillespie said.

The gay and lesbian community and its heterosexual supporters have formed a statewide organization -- the Coalition for Unity -- to fight the petition initiative.

"We'll be doing some advertising and grass-roots work but not as much as they are right now," said Bob Fulkerson, state director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN), a nonprofit organization that supports the Coalition for Unity. "If it makes the ballot, then the war begins."

Ziser's coalition must collect roughly 44,000 valid signatures by September from 14 counties in order to get the measure on the November ballot. If voters approve it, it will appear on the ballot again in 2001. If it is approved again, it will be enacted. So far, he says, his petition collectors are "on schedule" toward meeting their goal. Courting churches

On the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage's office wall, a huge map of Clark County is dotted with dozens of stickers of little red churches -- rallying points for petition carriers.

Across the nation and in Las Vegas, churches and synagogues are divided on whether to marry homosexuals.

Ziser is the president and chairman of elders at Canyon Ridge Christian Church, a nondenominational megachurch in northwest Las Vegas.

"I was born into an evangelical fringe church," Ziser said. Throughout his 20s, he said, he studied Christian doctrines and eventually earned his master's degree in Christian apologetics from the Simon Greenleaf School of Law in Anaheim, Calif.

"I learned how to defend the faith, how to soundly and persuasively defend the Scripture," Ziser said. "I think that gave a lot of impetus to what I'm doing now."

Ziser moved to Las Vegas nine years ago from outside of Los Angeles. He sold his casino-chip minting business in the mid-1990s and ran for Clark County School Board in 1998 against openly gay candidate Jack Lavin.

Both were defeated by a third candidate, Susan Brager. He also lobbied against a 1999 bill that prevented employers from discriminating based on sexual orientation.

In January Ziser mailed a letter to religious leaders asking for their support on the marriage issue:

"The concept of same-sex marriage has drawn a line in the sand, a defining point in the battle for our culture. Once we cross that line, homosexuality and the lifestyle it brings will have been normalized," he wrote.

"Most disturbing is that our government and educational systems will sanction and teach a lifestyle detrimental to the health and welfare of our children, families and society ...

"P.S.: This issue has been positioned as political in attempt to discourage religious and faith-based organizations from getting involved. This is a moral and social issue, which directly violates many of our sacred Scriptures."

Catholic Bishop Daniel Walsh wrote a letter to his priests that same month instructing them not to circulate the petitions in their parishes.

"He urged Catholics to support the family and protect marriage, but he was concerned that this particular measure would be used to foster ill will against homosexuals, and we support the dignity of all humans," diocese Chancellor Bob Stoeckig said.

Similarly, members of the Clark County Ministerial Association and the National Conference for Community and Justice's Interfaith Committee decided against supporting the initiative petition as a group. Mormon mission

However, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is known for its ability to mobilize on grass-roots issues by both funding and spreading messages door to door, is backing the initiative.

"The church has encouraged members to circulate petitions," Will Stoddard, Mormon Church spokesman in Las Vegas, said. "Members are encouraged to volunteer for the coalition. But the petitions are not circulated on church property or at church meetings.

"The church has invited their members to make direct financial contributions to the coalition, but as a church we never have held any ill will of any kind against those who profess to be homosexual or have those tendencies," Stoddard said.

The Mormon Church has been active in combating gay marriage all over the country. Mormon leaders urged members to donate to an anti-gay-marriage effort in California, which voters passed 61 percent to 39 percent in March.

In 1998 the Mormon Church contributed more than $1.1 million to defeat gay-marriage proposals in Hawaii and Alaska, paying for TV ads that mocked gay marriages.

In Nevada the issue is expected to turn into an advertising war by late summer, according to members from both sides.

The Coalition to Protect Marriage already has produced color brochures encouraging people to sign and circulate the petitions -- funded, like the office rent and computer equipment, by private donations, Ziser said.

Stacy J. Willis covers religious issues for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-4011 or by e-mail at willis@lasvegassun.com.