ENDA protestors face Las Vegas court date

By Glenn Gullickson

Four Phoenix LGBT activists have a Sept. 20 court date in Las Vegas after participating in a protest over U.S. Senate inaction on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

Meg Sneed, Jimmy Gruender, Paul Roark and Lee Walters were among eight people arrested on July 20 after they held a banner across Las Vegas Boulevard, obstructing traffic. It was part of a protest organized by GetEQUAL, an LGBT direct action group.

The act of civil disobedience was designed to bring attention to ENDA, which has not been brought to the floor by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who represents Nevada. ENDA would prohibit discrimination against employees on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The eight people arrested held a 65-foot banner across seven lanes of Vegas’ main thoroughfare that read “Reid: No One Can Do More?,” a takeoff on the senator’s campaign slogan.

Gruender said he and others from Phoenix also draped a banner overhead on a pedestrian walkway that said “Reid: Pass ENDA Now.”

“I would do it again tomorrow,” Sneed said in a telephone interview. “I think this is the type of action we have to do. It’s how you create tension and change.”

Gruender said the charges against the group include walking where there’s not a crosswalk and obstructing traffic.

The intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana was selected because a replica of the Statue of Liberty stands nearby at the New York, New York hotel, Gruender said.

He said that members of the Human and Equal Rights Organizers were asked to join the action because organizers had been impressed with their work in protesting the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. Gruender, Sneed and Walters were among those arrested in April outside of Sen. John McCain’s Phoenix office in a local DADT protest.

Among those arrested in the Las Vegas protest were Lt. Dan Choi, who is known for his DADT protests, and Robin McGehee, of GetEQUAL, a group that has been staging ENDA actions at the Capitol and across the country.

About a dozen others protestors walked along the road with picket signs, including Erica Keppler, Brad Wishon and Jason Hoppe, of Arizona.

Gruender said the group knew that blocking traffic could result in arrests, so only those willing to be arrested volunteered to hold the banner in the street.

In triple degree heat, the protest started at about 1 p.m. Traffic was backed up “as far as I could see,” Gruender said. He said lanes were kept open for emergency vehicles.

Police officers showed up after about 20 minutes and asked the group to leave, but when they didn’t the protestors were handcuffed and transported to the Clark County Detention Center.

“The police were absolutely wonderful,” Gruender said. He said officers wanted to cite and release the protesters, but were overruled by their supervisors. Ironically, Gruender said Las Vegas police officers told him that their department has an employment non-discrimination policy.

The protestors spent about 14 hours in jail before being released at about 3:30 a.m. July 21.

Gruender said he and the other men were in a holding cell with about 15 others and spent the time talking to other prisoners. 

“The whole experience was amazing to me,” he said. “Not one person was derogatory.”

Gruender said the group would make a decision together about whether to return to Las Vegas to fight the charges in court.