Question 2 debate, 2001 April 24

Nevada Assembly Bill 496, titled, Family Fairness Bill, was introduced by Assemblyman David Parks in the 2001 legislature to establish reciprocal beneficiary relationships in state law. AB 496 was an attempt to establish some legal protections for same-sex and other "non-married" relationships under threat of the success of Question 2. AB 496's failure was blamed on Question 2. Question 2 was an anti-same-sex marriage constitutional amendment passed by popular referendum in Nevada in 2000 and 2002. This video records a debate between Richard Ziser, director of the referendum's sponsoring organization, the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage in Nevada [CPM], and Las Vegas queer activist, Vincent Frey over AB 496. The program which hosted this debate was Face to Face, a half-hour public affairs program hosted by renowned Nevada journalist, Jon Ralston [who has a transgender son named Jacob "Jake" Ralston], sponsored by the Las Vegas Sun newspaper and broadcast on Las Vegas ONE, a 24-hour local news network which was a collaboration among the Las Vegas Sun, KLAS-TV Channel 8, and Prime Cable [Prime was purchased in 1998 by Cox Cable/Cox Communications], on channels 1 and 39. The general manager of Las Vegas ONE was Robert "Bob" Stoldal. The network operated from April 6, 1998 through January 9, 2010. For information on Nevada AB 496, see Out of the Neon Closet: Queer Community in the Silver State, by Dennis McBride [North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016], pp. 292, 304, 307, and MS-00802, Box 8 ["Domestic Partner Benefits - Nevada: AB 496 (2001)"] in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Special Collections Department. For the history of POV Vegas, see "Sun to Launch Daily Television News Talk Show" [Las Vegas Sun, June 27, 1999]. An oral history interview with David Parks is deposited in the Special Collections Department of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. [00:01:27 - 00:30:06]