Richard Ziser is an American real estate investor and socially conservative political activist belonging to the Republican Party.
Ziser was born June 7, 1953, in Pomona, California, and has resided in Las Vegas, Nevada since 1991.
Ziser graduated from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) with a BS in Industrial Engineering, 1976; then subsequently from Simon Greenleaf University in Santa Ana, CA, (now a campus of Trinity International University, with an MA in Christian Apologetics in 1989. [1]
In 2004, Ziser defeated 5 rival candidates in the Republican primary, then ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate against Democratic incumbent Harry Reid, losing 61%-35%. [2] [3] In 1998, Ziser lost his election bid to be on the Clark County, Nevada School Board. [4]
Ziser rose to political prominence as the leader of the effort to ban gay marriage in Nevada. [5] [3] He headed the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage, a successful, four-year campaign that succeeded in amending Nevada's State Constitution to define marriage as a union between "one man and one woman" in 2000. [3] [6] [7] [8]
In light of the Nevada Legislature's overriding of Governor Jim Gibbons' veto on domestic partnership legislation; due to take effect October 1, 2009. Ziser stated his intents to overturn the legislation as unconstitutional. [9]
Ziser is also an anti-abortion activist, opposing legalized abortion by proposing a Personhood Constitutional Amendment designed to protect the "right to life," of the fetus. [6]
Nevada is the only U.S. state where prostitution is legally permitted in some form. Prostitution is legal in 10 of Nevada's 17 counties, although only six allow it in every municipality. Six counties have at least one active brothel, which mainly operate in isolated, rural areas. The state's most populated counties, Clark and Washoe, are among those that do not permit prostitution. It is also illegal in Nevada's capital, Carson City, an independent city.
John Eric Ensign is an American veterinarian and former politician who served as a United States Senator from Nevada from 2001 until his resignation in 2011 amid a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into his attempts to hide an extramarital affair. A member of the Republican Party, Ensign previously represented Nevada's 1st congressional district in the House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. Following his resignation from the Senate, Ensign returned to Nevada and resumed his career as a veterinarian.
Harry Mason Reid Jr. was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Senate Majority Leader from 2007 to 2015.
Jonathan Christopher "Jon" Porter is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, the first representative elected from the 3rd Congressional District of Nevada.
Kathleen Sebelius is an American politician who served as the 21st United States Secretary of Health and Human Services from 2009 until 2014. As Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sebelius was instrumental in overseeing the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Before becoming secretary, she served as the 44th governor of Kansas from 2003 to 2009, the second woman to hold that office. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Sebelius was the Democratic respondent to the 2008 State of the Union address and is chair-emerita of the Democratic Governors Association. She is CEO of Sebelius Resources LLC.
Brian Edward Sandoval is an American politician, academic administrator, and former federal judge who served as the 29th Governor of Nevada from 2011 to 2019.
Prior to the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), U.S. state constitutional amendments banning same-sex unions of several different types passed, banning legal recognition of same-sex unions in U.S. state constitutions, referred to by proponents as "defense of marriage amendments" or "marriage protection amendments." These state amendments are different from the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, which would ban same-sex marriage in every U.S. state, and Section 2 of the Defense of Marriage Act, more commonly known as DOMA, which allowed the states not to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. The amendments define marriage as a union between one man and one woman and prevent civil unions or same-sex marriages from being legalized, though some of the amendments bar only the latter. The Obergefell decision in June 2015 invalidated these state constitutional amendments insofar as they prevented same-sex couples from marrying, even though the actual text of these amendments remain written into the state constitutions.
In response to court action in a number of states, the United States federal government and a number of state legislatures passed or attempted to pass legislation either prohibiting or allowing same-sex marriage or other types of same-sex unions.
Catherine Marie Cortez Masto is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Nevada, a seat she has held since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Cortez Masto served as the 32nd attorney general of Nevada from 2007 to 2015.
Mark Eugene Amodei is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Nevada's 2nd congressional district since 2011. The only Republican in Nevada's congressional delegation since 2019, Amodei served in the Nevada Assembly from 1997 to 1999 and in the Nevada Senate, representing the Capital District, from 1999 to 2011.
Kelvin Atkinson is a former Democratic member of the Nevada Senate, representing District 4. He previously served in the Nevada Assembly, representing Clark County District 17 from 2002 to 2012.
This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the year 2009.
Former United States Senator Harry Reid declared his position on many political issues through his public comments and his senatorial voting record.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the U.S. state of Nevada enjoy the same rights as non-LGBT people. Same-sex marriage has been legal since October 8, 2014, due to the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Sevcik v. Sandoval. Same-sex couples may also enter a domestic partnership status that provides many of the same rights and responsibilities as marriage. However, domestic partners lack the same rights to medical coverage as their married counterparts and their parental rights are not as well defined. Same-sex couples are also allowed to adopt, and state law prohibits unfair discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, among other categories, in employment, housing and public accommodations. In addition, conversion therapy on minors is outlawed in the state.
Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in Nevada since October 9, 2014, when a federal district court judge issued an injunction against Nevada's enforcement of its same-sex marriage ban, acting on order from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. A unanimous three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit had ruled two days earlier that the state's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Same-sex marriage was previously banned by an amendment to the Constitution of Nevada adopted in 2002. The statutory and constitutional bans were repealed in 2017 and 2020, respectively.
Frederick Harvey Whittemore is an American lawyer and businessman in the Reno, Nevada area. As an influential lobbyist for the gambling, alcohol and tobacco industries, and for his own ventures, Whittemore was called "one of Nevada's most powerful men." In 2012, Whittemore came under grand jury investigation, initiated by the Federal Election Commission, to determine whether he should be indicted for breaking federal campaign contribution laws. He was charged with four felonies with convictions on three of the counts, and sentenced September 2013 to two years in prison. He was also given a $100,000 fine, along with two years supervision after his incarceration and 100 hours community service.
Patricia Ann Spearman is an American cleric, veteran, and Democratic politician from North Las Vegas, Nevada. She was elected in November 2012 to the Nevada Senate representing District 1, that is composed of the northern section of North Las Vegas and slivers of neighboring jurisdictions, after defeating incumbent John Jay Lee in the primary, and winning the general election. Spearman became the first openly lesbian member of the Nevada Legislature. She was re-elected in November 2016, and serves as co-majority whip since. Regarded as one of the most liberal members of the Nevada Senate, Spearman has introduced bills that provide equal pay for women, support LGBT rights, and support veterans. Spearman is also a supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment. Moreover, she was involved in the process of establishing the Nevada Revenue Plan during the 2015 session. On October 6, 2021, Spearman entered the 2022 race for Mayor of North Las Vegas, Nevada.
Sevcik v. Sandoval is the lead case that successfully challenged Nevada's denial of same-sex marriage as mandated by that state's constitution and statutory law. The plaintiffs' complaint was initially filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada on April 10, 2012, on behalf of several couples denied marriage licenses. These couples challenged the denial on the basis of the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection.
Andrew Martin is an American politician and certified public accountant who has served as the Clark County Democratic Party Chair, as a Member of the Nevada State Economic Forum, a Member of the Clark County School District Bond Oversight Committee, and as a member of the Nevada Assembly. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Adam Paul Laxalt is an American attorney and politician who served as the 33rd Nevada Attorney General from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was the party's unsuccessful nominee for governor of Nevada in 2018 and for the U.S. Senate in 2022.