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]
Archival Collection
Las Vegas, Nevada LGBTQ Collection
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Collection Number: MS-00251 Collection Name: Las Vegas, Nevada LGBTQ Collection Box/Folder: Box 19, Digital File 00