Religous activist works to prohibit same-sex marriages
by Xiao Zhang, Outpost contributor
Two pictures of Jesus Christ hang on the wall in front of Janine Hansen's desk in her office. Baptized at 8, Hansen is a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She interprets from the Bible that homosexuality is an unacceptable life style.
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
-- Leviticus 18: 22
"I agree with the Bible: It's abomination," Hansen said. "It's not a life style; it's a death style."
And that's why the 48-year-old woman has joined in the fight against same-sex marriage. Hansen volunteers as the Washoe County chairwoman and northern and rural coordinator for the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage in Nevada. She said she will try her best to preserve traditional family values and prevent children in Nevada from being taught to accept a homosexual life style.
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"God's laws teach us that marriage is sacred, that families are the best place to raise children," Hansen said. "Homosexuality undermines the basic importance of a family."
Encouraged by her faith in God and her conservative political beliefs, Hansen joined the petition of protecting traditional marriage and has trained more than 200 people in Nevada to collect petition signatures.
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And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said FOR this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: And they twain shall be one flesh?
-- Matthew 19: 4 & 5
The hand-copied script from the Bible was especially conspicuous in red ink. It was part of the "Initiative Petition" slogan hanging on the wall of Hansen's office, which she donated for the use of the Protection of Marriage for the past few months.
The organization was formed in September to put a measure on the November ballot that would add the sentence, "Only a marriage between a male and a female person shall be recognized or given effect in this state," to the state constitution.
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
-- Deuteronomy 22: 5
This is among passages from a yellow sheet printed by Hansen's office in 1983. Consisting of 11 passages, the sheet is entitled "What the Bible says about homosexuality and lesbianism."
Same-sex marriage is not recognized in Nevada. The Nevada Revised Statutes says people capable of marriage are "a male and a female person at least 18." The Defense of Marriage Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1996 gave each state the responsibility of deciding whether to allow same-sex marriage. But under the Full Faith and Credit Clause in the Constitution, Nevada will have to recognize marriage formed between gays in states that allow same-sex marriage, such as Vermont.
More than 30 states outlawed same-sex marriage so that they do not have to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. Some state legislators in Las Vegas started such an initiative effort in Nevada, said Richard Ziser, chairman and spokesman of Protection of Marriage.
He said the coalition invited Hansen to join because she not only believed in the cause but has experiences in training people from her political activities.
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With short curly hair that never gets in her way, Hansen has thin lips and talks fast. A big frown shows through the pair of big glasses she wears. Her seriousness also shows when she talks about the issues she works on.
A native Nevadan, Hansen was born into a family active in politics. When she was young, she found her family always had signs in the yard supporting different candidates. When she was 12, she went from door to door with her mother in support of Barry Goldwater, a presidential candidate then.
She also grew up under the influence of her brother, who, 10 years older than she, founded the Independent American Party in Nevada in the 1960s. The party declares on its Web site that it is committed to the reforms for "a major change in government policies, a return to constitutional government, and control of the government by the governed."
"He sort of trained me," Hansen said. "We had a lot of political discussions."
Coerced into the Sparks High School debate team by her drama class teacher who said, "Janine, you don't have to join the debate team, but your drama grades depend on this." Hansen won the state debate championship three years later.
She spoke against abortion at the State Legislature when she was a freshman in college in 1971. That's the start of her almost 30 years of political activities.
" It wasn't planned, but I ended up in political activities," said Hansen, who has never taken a political science course. "The Lord prepared me for doing this."
Chairwoman of the Northern Nevada's Stop E.R.A., a group that evolved in 1978 into the Nevada Eagle Forum, which supports supports "pro-life, pro-family and pro-constitution," Hansen has been a citizen lobbyist at every state legislative session since 1971. She does political consulting, has worked on political campaigns and gathered petition signatures nationwide.
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Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
-- Jude 7
"If we look at it historically, nations who have openly embrace homosexuality and who have abandoned morality have declined as a nation," Hansen said, giving Rome as an example.
Condemning homosexuality as immoral, she said immorality hurts liberty of the country.
"Our Founding Fathers taught that liberty is based on individual morality," she said. "And if we abandon morality, we lose liberty as a free people."
Working to preserve family values, Hansen herself hasn't been successful in her marriages. She has been married four times and divorced three times. She has two children and home-schooled them.
"No one in the world is perfect," Hansen said of her failure in marriage. "I wish that I had never divorced. I certainly don't encourage people to divorce.
"I think one of the reasons I am so concerned about family issues is because I myself have experienced what failure can mean."
She said she has been married to her current husband for 13 years. Drawing from her own unsuccessful experience, Hansen said she will try to preserve family values and keep marriage as it was: Between a man and a woman.
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Bob Fulkerson, head of the Progressive Leadership Alliance in Nevada, said the initiative against same-sex marriage is "divisive and unnecessary."
"It singles out homosexuals for an extra attack," he said. "They are using us as scapegoats for failure of marriages."
Rodney Sumpter, a Reno attorney, agreed. He said being Christian and gay himself, he doesn't think homosexuality is against the Bible or immoral. Also, it's "nobody's business."
"It's improper for the government to attempt to regulate morality," Sumpter said. "What I or my neighbors choose to do personally is not a function of the government."
Fulkerson also is angry about what he calls imposing the church onto the state. "It's just a group of religious political extremists who wants to force one religion belief down everybody's throats. They have a broad agenda that is counter to most American ideals. They should go to another country."
Hansen disagrees.
"In America, the state does what the people want; the people don't do what the state wants," she said. "And religion has always been, from the founding of our country, very important as a part of the foundation of beliefs of our country. Our laws are based on the laws of the Bible."
Sumpter said he knows that God wouldn't allow discrimination to happen in a country where everyone is created equal.
The Alliance is educating the 40 groups under it, which represents about 100,000 people, Fulkerson said. He also talked to the editorial boards of Reno Gazette-Journal, Nevada Appeal and Las Vegas Review Journal to editorialize against the petition.
Fulkerson is worried that the initiative might create a violent atmosphere toward gay people. He said that when the Oregon Citizen's Alliance came to Nevada for a petition against homosexuals in 1994, hate crimes against gays increased.
Yet Hansen said the initiative will benefit families in Nevada and draw more business to the state.
"Nevada has a very bad reputation," she said. "A reputation that we have prostitutes on every corner. Adding the amendment to the state law would say to all states, 'Yes, Nevada believes in the importance of marriage and the importance of family.' I don't think it'll make any difference to homosexuals ultimately."
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Tuesday evening Hansen is busy moving the chairs from the storage room to her office. Whenever new volunteers walked into the room, she stops to says hello to them. Training meetings for volunteers from Washoe County takes place here every Tuesday evening.
For more than an hour, Hansen taught a room of about 20 people from different churches how to collect petition signatures. She went over details from where to have people sign their last name and first name to praying and having a good attitude when collecting signatures. Occasionally, her constantly knotted eyebrows extended with a smile on her face when she uses personal experiences to lighten up the training session.
Besides training meetings, she did individual trainings. She and the two part-time volunteer secretaries have contacted churches in Nevada and sent out 500 mailings to invite people to join the coalition.
Last week, she traveled to five Nevada counties. She spent one night at each of them to train volunteers. She got from 10 to more than 20 volunteers in each county.
Assemblyman Tom Collins, who's known Hansen for seven years, said, she is energetic and serious. "I often tell her to lighten up a little bit." Collins, whose name is on the sponsoring committee on the Protection of Marriage pamphlet, said he told Hansen everyone is God's child, and people should love each other.
When Hansen frowns, she may be thinking about what a controversial issue she is working on. But the answer for her is definite. She may be recalling getting death threats on the phone and pornography pasted on her office window because of fighting against the gay rodeo. But no harm has been done to her.
"I've been blessed by God and His protecting hand," Hansen said.
Tomorrow morning, she will start another five-day trip to five other counties for training. She will continue to meet people who are like her and who think as she does: That homosexuality is a sin. But she is praying with other volunteers at the beginning and closing of the training sessions to get the 40,009 signatures before June 20.
Posted April 19, 2000
Copyright 2000 Nevada Outpost
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