Peter Todd was a significant figure in the gaming, entertainment, and financial industries of Las Vegas, as well as a queer activist in the Las Vegas AIDS community. Todd was co-founder, with Bree Burgess, of the Golden Rainbow AIDS organization and served as financial officer for Aid for AIDS of Nevada [AFAN]. When Todd was diagnosed in 1992 with lung cancer that had spread to his liver, he had no medical insurance. This benefit was a fundraiser to help cover expenses for Todd's treatments. The event's host/emcee was queer entertainer RIchard Powell [d. October 29, 2021]. The event included performances by Las Vegas Strip entertainers, testimony from Todd's friends and a thank-you speech from Todd himself, who died April 8, 1993. For biographical information on Todd, see "Four Individuals Win AFAN Humanitarian Award" [Las Vegas Bugle, April 1991, pp. 26-28, 30], and "Todd Honored as LV Men's Club 'Man of the Year' " [Las Vegas Bugle, September 1992, 24]. For information on the benefit event, see "300 Persons Honor Peter Todd at Benefit" [Las Vegas Bugle, November 1992, 18]. For Todd's obituary, see the Las Vegas Sun, April 9, 1993, 2B, and "Peter Todd Leaves Golden Legacy of Memories" [Las Vegas Bugle, April 1993, 20] [00:00:00 - 01:59:06]

Jahna Steele, aka Jahna Reis [d. January 24, 2008], was a renowned transgender performer in Las Vegas whose reputation became international through the 1990s and 2000s. Steele hosted The World's Most Beautiful Transsexual Contest at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in 2004. For information on Steele, see Out of the Neon Closet: Queer Community in the Silver State, by Dennis McBride [North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016], pp. 153-154. For Steele's obituary, see the Las Vegas Review-Journal, January 29, 2008, p. 4B. Also see "Jahna Steele: Woman of Steele" [QVegas, December 2005, 34] and "Jahna Steele" [Las Vegas Review-Journal, October 10, 2010, 4J]. This videotape is a promotional item of Steele's entertainment career. [00:00:00 - 00:06:38]

The Honorarium, first celebrated in 1994, is an annual awards ceremony where the LGBTQ Center of Southern Nevada recognizes significant members of the Las Vegas queer community, as well as community supporters and allies. For more information on the 2004 Honorarium, see "Gay, Lesbian Center to Host Honorarium" [Las Vegas Sun, August 11, 2004, 9B] and "The Center to Honor Community Leaders [QVegas, August 2004, 20]. Of particular interest at the 2004 Honorarium is recognition of the cast of the Las Vegas Academy's production of The Laramie Project which drew a raucous protest from members of the virulently homophobic Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kansas, led by Fred Phelps and members of his family. See "Las Vegas Academy Theater Cast to Receive Youth Activist Award [Las Vegas Review-Journal, August 14, 2004, 14B]; "Group Plans to Picket Play at School: Anti-Gay Protesters Target High School [Las Vegas Sun, May 6, 2004, 1B, 8B]; "Anti-Gay Group Targets LV School: Protest Set on Content of Student Play" [Las Vegas Review-Journal, May 7, 2004, 1B, 13B]; "Counterprotest Planned by Community Groups" [Las Vegas Sun, May 7, 2004, 7B]; "Anti-Gay Group Outnumbered" [Las Vegas Sun, May 12, 2004, 1B, 4B]; and "Anti-Gay Protesters Picket School: Hundreds Turn Out to Support School Targeted by Church" [Las Vegas Review-Journal, May 13, 2004, 1B, 4B]. [00:00:00 - 01:26:47]

The Equal Right to Marry Project in Las Vegas was established in 1996 through the LGBTQ Center of Southern Nevada to fight for marriage equality. One of the organization's first events was a panel discussion at the Clark County Library featuring Evan Wolfson, an attorney with the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. This videotape of the panel discussion is Part 1 of 2. For a short history of the Equal Right to Marry Project in Las Vegas, see Out of the Neon Closet: Queer Community in the Silver State, by Dennis McBride [North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016], pp. 274-275. Still photographs of this event may be found in photograph collection 00263 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' Special Collections Department, photo nos. 2728-2737. Oral history interviews with panel members Dan Hinkley, Lori Lipman Brown, Lee Plotkin, and Mike Mas are also deposited in the Special Collections Department. [00:00:00 - 01:53:10]

This video records the commitment ceremony between African American lesbians Caroline [dressed in a gown] and Elsa [dressed in a suit]--their surnames are not given--in the courtyard of the LGBTQ Center of Southern Nevada in celebration of National Freedom to Marry Day. Among those attending the ceremony are Lori Lipman Brown and Gary Peck of the ACLU. [00:00:00 - 00:07:30]

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 among Richard Ziser, director of the referendum's sponsoring organization, the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage in Nevada [CPM], and pro-same-sex marriage activists including Lee Plotkin and his husband, Robert Smith; Vincent Frey, then executive director of the LGBTQ Center of Southern Nevada; former Nevada State Senator and sponsor of legislation overturning Nevada's sodomy law in 1993, Lori Lipman Brown; and Gary Peck, president of the American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU] in Nevada. The program which hosted this debate was POV Vegas, a half-hour public affairs program which debuted on July 12, 1999, 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 the story of Question 2, see Out of the Neon Closet: Queer Community in the Silver State, by Dennis McBride [North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016], pp. 103, 257, 273, 277-302, 309-312. For the history of POV Vegas, see "Sun to Launch Daily Television News Talk Show" [Las Vegas Sun, June 27, 1999]. Oral history interviews with Lee Plotkin and Lori Lipman Brown are depoisited in the Special Collections Department of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. [00:00:00 - 00:26:24]

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]