They call them queers because they've got a screw loose." Governor Robert List follows this up on March 27 by complaining, "I just don't like the notion that the nation looks toward Nevada as the gay rodeo capital." Within a few years, the group reorganizes and moves its base of operation to southern Nevada. Governor Myron Leavitt, remarking on the Reno Gay Rodeo (RGR), says, "I'm strongly opposed to queers using public property. The rodeo's presence in Reno is contentious. The event is closed to the general public. October 2, 1976: The first Reno Gay Rodeo is held at the Washoe County Fairgrounds in Reno.The gay community’s first newspaper, Vegas Gay Times, is published in 1978 "in conjunction with" the ACLU's Human Rights Committee. In 1977, the ACLU-Las Vegas sponsors a gay rights seminar at the Clark County Library on Flamingo Road. May 1, 1975: The American Civil Liberties Union opens an office in Las Vegas with a $5,000 grant from the national office.Ron Gee officiates and from this day MCC-Las Vegas becomes one of the cornerstones of the gay community. In October, 1979, a new chapter of the Metropolitan Community Church in Las Vegas conducts its first service in St. Clonnie Lambert is pastor of a Las Vegas chapter of the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC). March 14, 1974: An article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal notes that Rev.
Openly gay, Marge's political activities in the 1970s established the political consciousness of Las Vegas's gay community.