A petition designed to head off any effort to legalize gay marriage in Nevada was filed early last month in Carson City. Sponsors must collect 65,000 signatures by June 20 to send the measure to voters next fall.
The aim? To embed in the state constitution a restriction which is already de facto in Nevada law -- that "Only a marriage between a male and female person shall be recognized and given effect in this state."
Should other states legalize gay marriage -- as is already threatened in Vermont -- Nevada might have to recognize such unions, warns sponsor Richard Ziser, chairman of the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage in Nevada. Furthermore, Mr. Ziser proclaims, "We need to send a clear and positive message to Nevada children about the importance of marriage."
Well, as Jack Warner once famously said, "If I wanted to send a message, I'd call Western Union."
Nevada law already stipulates that a legally recognized marriage must be between "a man and a woman." Shall Nevada taxpayers now be polarized by what will doubtless become a heated and hate-filled campaign -- can we expect more anonymous tabloids in the mailbox, like the last time, explaining how children can "catch AIDS" by frequenting the same swimming pools as gay men -- to accomplish nothing but an assurance that the law will (start ital)not be changed(end ital)?
The more general acceptance of the "out-of-the-closet" gay lifestyle is upsetting to many, of course -- not all of whom are hate-filled bigots, by any means. Most of the world's major religions frown on homosexuality, and exposure to gay couples can indeed evoke questions from the mouths of babes which some parents find embarrassing.
So? A child encountering his or her first adult of a different skin color may innocently ask if that person is "sick" or "dirty." The forthrightness of children when asking why someone is in a wheelchair can also be mildly embarrassing. But honesty and forthrightness have always been better solutions to these mild embarrassments than seeking to keep "different-looking" people out of sight.
Asked if they would ban responsible gay Nevadans from adopting children, proponents of this measure say they have no such aim. Asked if they seek to bar the life partner of a gay worker from qualifying for dependent health benefits under an employer insurance policy, or whether they would ban a gay life partner from hospital visitation rights -- even from making the life-and-death decisions usually reserved for a "spouse" -- Mr. Ziser and the other proponents of this effort deny those are among their goals, either.
So -- what (start ital)are(end ital) they worried about?
In fact, pretty much the most embarrassing thing Las Vegas ever did was enforce far into this century a "color bar" which allowed black entertainers to (start ital)perform(end ital) in the city's fanciest showrooms -- while instructing them to please take rooms "across the tracks."
Thank goodness that day is long gone. Today, tourists from around the world arrive here, with many different habits of dress and diet, and -- yes -- marriage customs. And while we still might not tolerate a Sudanese chieftain with his chattel slaves, Nevada is otherwise blessedly open-minded about visitors from exotic and distant cultures -- even those as strange as Vermont.
(In truth, what we ought to do is (start ital)emulate(end ital) sensible Vermont when it comes to matters like reciprocity and the Second Amendment: Not only does the peaceful Green Mountain State require no silly "permit" for its own residents to carry concealed weapons, it also graciously imposes no such requirement on (start ital)visitors(end ital).)
This petition drive to amend the Nevada state constitution to ban gay marriage is redundant and divisive. Such issues are best discussed and handled in our churches and temples and families, not through a "one-size-fits-all" application of the mailed fist of government, whose powers and fields of operation all freedom-loving Americans should be diligently working to limit -- not to expand.
Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. His new book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available at $24.95 postpaid from Mountain Media, P.O. Box 271122, Las Vegas, Nev. 89127; by dialing 1-800-244-2224; or via web site http://www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html. Credit cards accepted; volume discounts available.
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Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." -- John Hay, 1872
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
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