Columnist Susan Snyder: For a good time, try abstinence

Friday, June 27, 2003 | 9:03 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

Card-carrying virgins and smut handbill hawkers standing elbow-to-elbow on the Las Vegas Strip.

You gotta love this town.

Leslee Unruh visited Las Vegas 30 years ago to get married. But she has returned this weekend to promote sexual abstinence in a city internationally known for strip joints, topless shows and legal brothels an hour's drive away.

Tonight Unruh and about 150 members of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse will hit the Strip and distribute "Good Girl Cards" to contradict the sex industry handbills passed out there every week.

"People say they're shocked," Unruh said Wednesday."But it should be a shock that you're handing out garbage."

Yes, Unruh & Co. have a permit and know the rules.

Unruh, president and founder of the South Dakota-based organization, arrived at the Marriott Las Vegas on Tuesday for the group's national convention that opened Thursday.

Some members boycotted this year's convention because of its location, Unruh said. But she didn't cave.

"We flaunt the skin, and we make young people think that they should be sexy," Unruh said. "It's so sad. There are so many beautiful girls here, and men aren't picking them for what's in their heads."

By Wednesday afternoon she counted two Marriott workers, a spa manicurist and an Elvis impersonator among those in her camp. And she hadn't even hit the Strip.

The secular organization is hosting a 7 p.m. public youth rally at the hotel. Buses will begin shuttling "Good Girl" distributors to the Strip at 8:30 p.m.

One attendee will park a Ferrari, a Maserati Spyder and a Humvee in conspicuous spots along the Strip.

Bait of the non-jail variety.

"People are going to come over to look at the cars, and we're going to give them Good Girl cards," Unruh said.

On one side, the pocket-size cards feature photographs of girls (their stories are posted on abstinence.net). On the flip side is information about the diseases condoms don't prevent and the advantages marriage provides.

They'll also have stickers: "Pet your dog, not your date," and, "I'm worth waiting for."

"We're going to have some fun with this," Unruh said.

Hey, she likes a good time. She married in Vegas, remember? Unruh and her husband were busy professionals who hadn't time for the fairy-tale gig. She said he finally asked whether she'd elope and promised her a helicopter ride over Hoover Dam and a ceremony complete with a white dress and minister.

Veiled and ready, Unruh sat in the Chapel of the Bells waiting for her groom to return with the license. She also talked a young woman out of marrying a man she'd just met.

"I was a social worker," Unruh recalled. "I could smell the alcohol on her breath. I said, 'Honey you don't have to do this. It could last a long time.' She got up and walked out."

Not exactly a poster child for the kind of visitor that tourism officials are bent on luring. But rest easy, fellas. Unruh has no plans to move here.

Yet.

"If I lived here," she said, "I'd be a busy girl."