Plotkin: At the time, Kevin Kelly, a local attorney, was mounting a legal challenge to the sodomy law at the same time state Sen. Lori Lipman Brown put forward her bill in the Legislature. DC: So this wasn’t an organized political action. It was something that popped up? McBride: Not initially. In 1992, some of us got together and formed an organization. Schlegel: The plan was to wait until the last few hours of the Legislature and just pass this thing quietly. McBride: As Lee said, another group we derisively call “The A Gays” because they have money and political influence, were working on their own little effort, too, through the courts. Then came Lori Lipman Brown, a freshman, who didn’t even know any of that was going on. She just wrote and introduced this bill and threw the community into a tizzy. We were very scared and upset. “Who’s this straight woman who’s looking out for our interests? Shame on her.” Schlegel: We thought she had torpedoed all of our efforts.
McBride: But then (prominent AIDS doctor) Jerry Cade said, “Hey, what’s happened has happened. Let’s make the best of it.”
breeze! He’s never come up against somebody who has said, “I can’t publicly support you. I can’t give you any money. I can’t advertise.”
Schlegel: A bunch of us met in my office and formed Nevadans for Constitutional Equality, raised about $12,000, hired a lobbyist and helped Lori. The first time we ever pooled our resources.
Hurley: It’s all technology now. Where we had to beat the path to get the word out to tell everybody what was going on, now it’s just “text to number, bloop, bloop, bloop.”
McBride: We really made a huge difference when we learned to stop sniping at each other, and to coordinate and cooperate. And that was the first time that the straight community, through Lori Lipman-Brown, really came to our aid.
Schlegel: It was never about recognition for what any of us did, but by the same token, it’d be nice to say, “Oh, you guys won the war,” or whatever. It just sort of hurts a little bit when nobody recognizes or pays attention to you.
‘They’re standing on our shoulders’
McBride: Well, you know, on one hand, I think they don’t appreciate what we went through and what we put up with. But on the other hand, I think how successful we were, because they take so much for granted now. They just take it for granted.
DC: What do current gay leaders need to know about the history of this? Do you think the kids fighting for marriage today understand what it took to get here? Mulford: I don’t think they take any interest in it whatsoever. They’re standing on our shoulders, and we stood on and are standing on somebody else’s shoulders. Do you think (party promoter) Eduardo Cordova has any kind of challenge squeezing money out of the Mirage or wherever he has his parties? It’s a
Schlegel: They have no inkling. McBride: I hope they never find out. The Las Vegas Pride festival and parade takes place Sept. 16-17. For information, visit www.lasvegaspride.org.
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