Las Vegas Review-Journal, Thursday, June 17, 1993
Miller signs [Nevada] gay sex bill into law
By Brendan Riley

Carson City.  A bill allowing gay sex in private was signed into 
law Wednesday by Gov. Bob Miller, who said Nevada's anti-sodomy 
law dating to 1911 was unenforceable.

Senate Bill 466, which won final legislative approval in the 
Assembly on Monday, cancels the old law that made gay sex between 
consenting adults a felony.

But the bill was amended to make public acts of sodomy, fellatio, 
or cunnilingus between heterosexuals or homosexuals a felony 
punishable by up to six years in prison.

"The governor felt after reviewing the testimony in the 
Legislature that the current law was unenforceable," Miller press 
secretary Michael Campbell said.

Campbell added that Miller believed the amendment, added in the 
Senate as a way to get more conservatives to support the original 
bill, "is important because it strikes at some of the live sex 
shows."

Such shows have been a problem in Las Vegas, where 13 people, 
including 10 X-rated movie actresses, were recently indicted on 
sex-related charges following what was billed as an anti- 
censorship event.

In the Assembly, some lawmakers tried to reduce the penalty for 
such public sex acts to a gross misdemeanor, arguing that it's 
ridiculous to create a new class of felons considering how 
crowded and costly the state's prisons are.

Miller's director of prisons, Ron Angelone, also had questioned 
the public sex amendment, saying it could result in an increase 
in young male and female prisoners if authorities prosecute 
couples caught having sex in cars or in camps that happen to fit 
the definition of public space.

But, Campbell said, "the bill's sponsors said that wasn't the 
intent."  Lawmakers also had warned that any change by the 
Assembly in the Senate-approved bill would have killed the entire 
plan.

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Chris L. Cobb -- clc@nevada.edu -- B0 f t+ w c+ g+ k+ s+ m r p