These days, what happens in Vegas is increasingly gay. Even Chippendales. But is it possible to welcome tourists to a state that doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage?
When Scott Martin, a gay tech executive from Spokane, Washington, attended his first Las Vegas convention in 1996, he was giddier than a Beverly Hills housewife at an all-you-can-inject Botox party.
But his excitement soon turned to frustration. The only two gay bars in town weren’t anywhere near the Vegas Strip. “I had to take a cab just to get there,” says Martin. When he did, he was weak with disappointment. “It felt like we were still in Spokane.”
Ironically, what happened in Vegas was next to nothing.