Las Vegas Spectrum

“A political lifetime,” David Parks said in an oral history interview 20 years ago, “can be really short.” This year, Parks concludes a career in state and local government that has lasted 50 years, 24 of them spent in the Nevada State Legislature as an assemblyman and senator. In that time, Parks and other legislators he persuaded to follow him...

According to the Center for HIV Law & Policy, 32 states have laws that criminalize behavior of people living with HIV. Nevada is one of those states. In 1993, the U.S. was grappling with HIV — how to treat it and people living with it, how to protect those not living with it — and sought to criminalize behavior...

It is not too late to catch the Las Vegas Little Theatre’s live online production of “Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End,” performed Saturdays, Oct. 24 and 31 at 7 p.m. and Sundays, Oc. 25 and Nov. 1 at 3 p.m. The one-woman play by playwright sisters Margaret Engel and Allison Engel stars Gillen Brey as America’s beloved humorist who championed...

Well, the Bitch is back, at least for this month. Belated congrats to my old boss, Rob Schlegel, two dear, dear friends from long ago, Lyn Collier and Terry Wilsey for publishing the Spectrum. There’s a fourth partner, and I’m saving him for last. One, he’s so cute and two, who would ever believe Rob would get married and...

Gayle Stanley Wallace, known by his preferred name of Wally Wallace, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly, at his Mudd Ranch home, on Oct. 4. His companion and spouse, Terry Wilsey, was at his side. Wally was an artisan and agriculturist. “Mudd Ranch,” the name of the homes he built in the area, was a nod to his artisan skills in...

ARIES (March 21 - April 19) Imagine you are surrounded by sparkles and magic. Spirit has held things back from you in recent months. That all changes now. Stay strong in the energy of following your heart and avoid taking on other people’s imagined emergencies. Be delighted about what will be presented. You’ve earned these opportunities. TAURUS (April 20 -...

After seven months of navigating life under COVID-19, we are all trying to find ways to stay connected, while also staying safe. People in the queer community are disproportionately at risk for COVID-19, largely due to existing inequalities, and some members even more so due to health, age or other factors. At the same time, while physically distancing, we...

Our world today is very different from the one most of us grew up in. Technology has transformed society, and the pandemic has shown us just how far that transformation has gone. It wasn’t that long ago that big discussions were being held on how our digital dependence had separated us from each other; now it’s the glue trying to...

Vote early and vote often was a popular phrase uttered in Chicago before elections, but it was intended as tongue-in-cheek. President Donald Trump and the GOP have thrown a verbal monkey wrench into the election process this year by challenging the legitimacy of elections held in Nevada and other states where there is mail-in voting. Nevada takes it a step...

The LGBTQ+ community just lost one of its greatest champions on the highest court of the land. The passing of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a stark reminder of what is at stake this election. She cast her vote with the majority in the pivotal cases that moved closer toward our community’s collective goal of equality.  Now...