Openly gay Nevada senator to speak to support group

State Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, was 28 when he finally told his friends and family that he was gay.

"My parents were in total shock," he recalls. "Their concern was more, 'what will the neighbors think?' rather than giving their children love and support and trying to understand."

Knowing the importance of acceptance is one of the reasons Nevada's first and only openly gay senator is an advocate of the support group Parents, Family & Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and why he's speaking to the Carson City chapter on Tuesday.

"I think PFLAG is a wonderful organization," Parks said. "I have been a supporter of them for many, many years."

Although it took some time for Parks, 65, to come out " one year after he got out of the Air Force and several years after his twin sister came out as a lesbian " he later became an outspoken advocate.

"It was sort of a liberating sense," he said.

In the 1980s, Parks was appointed to then-Gov. Richard Bryan's first AIDS Advocacy task force. At the time, he was nursing a close friend through the final stages of his battle with the disease.

His work with the gay community, however, hindered his career. He said he was fired from his job as the budget director for Las Vegas in 1984 because of his sexual orientation.

"They said I was gay so I was going to die of AIDS," he said. "That's how they sold it to the city council."

Parks worked as assistant director of the regional transportation committee and was told by an elected official at the time that because he was gay, he could not hope to rise above an assistant position.

"That far back, in the mid-1990s, that's definitely they way things were seen," he said. "It's changed radically."

Parks cited openly gay leaders and domestic partner benefit programs in almost every Fortune 500 company in the country as evidence of a changing mindset.

In his second term in the state Assembly, where he served from 1997-2008 before being elected to the Senate, he pushed for increased marketing to gay tourists.

"I remember them looking at me like I was an idiot," he said.

Now, he said, almost every major hotel chain in Las Vegas has one resort dedicated to catering to gays.

At the PFLAG meeting, he plans to present an overview of pending legislation that would affect the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community.

"We are very much looking forward to it," said Pam Graber, secretary of PFLAG. "He's broken through a lot of barriers, and it's so inspirational for us."

Graber said she had several friends and co-workers who were gay, and she sympathized with the difficulty they had in finding acceptance. So when her daughter came out as a lesbian, Graber said it wasn't traumatic.

"I've long been a supporter of the cause, so she knew she didn't have to do anything but tell me," she said.

However, there are still "pockets of anger, misunderstanding, fear and hate," Graber said.

"We've come a long way," she said. "We've got a long way to go. Individuals like Sen. Parks are out leading the charge for us."

The meeting is open to the public.

- Contact reporter Teri Vance at tvance@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1272.