Same-sex marriage in Nevada


has been legally recognized in Nevada since October 9, 2014, when the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada issued an injunction against enforcement of Nevada's same-sex marriage ban, acting on order from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. A unanimous three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit had ruled two days earlier in Sevcik v. Sandoval that the state's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Same-sex marriage was previously banned by an amendment to the Constitution of Nevada. The statutory ban on same-sex marriages was repealed by the Nevada Legislature in 2017, and the constitutional ban was repealed by voters in 2020 by 62–38 percent.
Nevada has recognized domestic partnerships since October 1, 2009, after the Nevada Legislature enacted legislation overriding Governor Jim Gibbons's veto. The state maintains a domestic partnership registry that enables same-sex couples to enjoy most of the same rights as married couples. It allows opposite-sex couples to establish domestic partnerships as well.

Domestic partnerships

Efforts to recognize same-sex unions as reciprocal beneficiary relationships, similar to Hawaii's, were heavily opposed by conservative and religious groups, and a bill to this effect was defeated in 2001. Senate Bill 283, legislation creating domestic partnerships in which unmarried couples–both same-sex couples and different-sex couples–would enjoy most of the rights of married couples, was sponsored by openly gay Senator David Parks of Las Vegas in 2009. To attract support, he modified his original draft so that the legislation exempted both private and public employers from having to provide health care benefits to their employees' domestic partners. It passed the Senate on April 21, 2009, on a 12–9 vote, and the Nevada State Assembly passed the legislation 26–14 on May 15. On May 25, Governor Jim Gibbons vetoed the legislation. In his veto message he wrote: "I believe because the voters have determined that the rights of marriage should apply only to married couples, only the voters should determine whether those rights should equally apply to domestic partners." On May 30, the Senate overrode Gibbons' veto on a 14–7 vote, and the Assembly overrode the veto the next day on a 28–14 vote, obtaining the two-thirds vote needed to override the veto. The law took effect on October 1, 2009. It allows opposite-sex couples to establish domestic partnerships as well.
The Nevada Domestic Partnership Act provides many of the state-level rights, responsibilities, obligations, entitlements and benefits of marriage under the name "domestic partnership". They differ from marriage in lacking a requirement that businesses and governments provide health benefits to the domestic partners of their employees if they do so for the spouses of their married employees. On June 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Windsor, which challenged the Defense of Marriage Act and declared Section 3 of DOMA unconstitutional, reasoning that it violated the protections of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, as well as the equal protection guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment. Because of that ruling, federal government benefits were extended to same-sex couples and their children in states where same-sex marriage is legal. Further, Nevada domestic partnerships differ from marriages in that a couple forming a domestic partnership must share a common residence. Domestic partners must be at least 18 years old, the same age required for marriage. While someone who wishes to marry can do so at age 16 with the consent of one parent, no comparable exception is provided for someone who wishes to enter into a domestic partnership before the age of 18.
Some rights provided by a Nevada domestic partnership are:
  • Hospital visitation, health care decision-making, and information-access rights
  • Inheritance rights, including the right to administer the estate of an intestate domestic partner, and business succession rights
  • Rights regarding cemetery plots, disposition of remains, anatomical donations, and ordering of autopsies
  • Ability to bring a wrongful death action based on the death of the partner
  • Community property, domestic violence and testimonial privileges rules apply
  • Dissolution laws apply
  • Ability to sue on behalf of the community
  • Certain property transfers between partners are not taxed
  • State veterans' benefits apply
  • Appointed and elected officials' domestic partners are subject to the same laws and regulations that apply to officials' spouses
  • Rights regarding employment benefits, including sick leave to care for a domestic partner, wages and benefits when a domestic partner is injured, and to unpaid wages upon the death of a domestic partner, unemployment and disability insurance benefits, and workers' compensation coverage
  • Insurance rights, including rights under group policies, policy rights after the death of a domestic partner, conversion rights and continuing coverage rights
  • Rights related to adoption, child custody and child support

    Same-sex marriage

Legal restrictions

In 1975, Nevada's marriage statute was amended to expressly state that "a male and a female person...may be joined in marriage". The LGBT community in Nevada enjoyed a series of political victories in the 1990s, including the repeal of a law that criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations and the passage of a law banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In 1998, the Mayor of Las Vegas, Jan Jones Blackhurst, issued a proclamation declaring February 12 as the National Freedom to Marry Day, a move considered "unprecedented" by local activists. Around the time the federal Defense of Marriage Act was passed in 1996, religious and conservative groups began campaigning to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in Nevada. A local version of the National Coalition for the Protection of Marriage was founded in 1999. The group succeeded in filing a petition to amend the Constitution of Nevada prohibiting same-sex marriages and banning the state from recognizing same-sex marriages validly performed elsewhere. Opponents of same-sex marriage gained momentum in Nevada by the successful campaign in California to pass Proposition 22.
"Caught by surprise and unprepared", LGBT activists were severely underfunded compared to their opponents, who ran media campaigns and raised billboards. Most of the funding to opponents of same-sex marriage came from Mormons in Nevada. The amendment, as Question 2, was placed on the ballot in November 2000, and passed with 69% of the vote. It required approval a second time in 2002, when it passed with 67% of the vote. Richard Ziser, a real estate investor, headed the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage, which led the successful campaign that amended the State Constitution to define marriage as a union between "one man and one woman." A month after Question 2 was approved by Nevada voters, the government of the Republic of Molossia, an unrecognized micronation near Dayton, issued a proclamation regarding same-sex marriage effective from December 29, that "Discrimination against any individual in any manner on the grounds of sexual orientation is absolutely prohibited. This prohibition includes but is not limited to: discrimination as regards marriage, inheritance, jobs, justice and the redress of wrongs, education, and spiritual sustenance. Furthermore, no distinction will be made between homosexual relationships and heterosexual relationships. Both will be treated equally by the Government of the Republic of Molossia, its agencies, any private organization or agency, and any and all private citizens."

Repeal of discriminatory laws

A bill to make the marriage statute gender-neutral was introduced to the Nevada State Assembly by Representative Ellen Spiegel on February 21, 2017. The legislation passed the Assembly on April 17 in a 28–10 vote, and the Senate followed on May 17 with a 20–1 vote. It was signed into law by Governor Brian Sandoval on May 26, and took effect on July 1, 2017. Nevada statutes now read:
Political affiliationVoted forVoted againstAbsent
Democratic Party–
Republican Party
Total 104
Total

Political affiliationVoted forVoted againstAbsent
Democratic Party––
Republican Party–
Independent––
Total 10
Total

In 2013, the Nevada Legislature began work on legislation to repeal the constitutional ban and substitute in its place a gender-neutral definition of marriage. The Senate approved such legislation on April 22 on a 12–9 vote, and the Nevada Assembly passed the resolution on May 23 by a 27–14 vote. It would have required approval by the next legislative session in 2015 and by voters in the 2016 election to take effect. However, as Republicans took control of the Senate following the 2014 elections, no second vote was held. On February 1, 2017, after the Democratic Party took control of the Senate following the 2016 elections, identical legislation was introduced to repeal the now-defunct ban on same-sex marriage. The resolution passed the Assembly on March 9, 2017, in a 27–14 vote. The Senate amended it to include a religious exemption, after which it passed the bill on May 1 in a 19–2 vote, and the Assembly approved the Senate's amendment on May 2. The resolution returned to the Nevada Legislature in February 2019. It was approved by the Assembly on March 29 in a 38–2 vote and by the Senate on May 23, 2019, in a 19–2 vote. As Question 2, it was placed on the November 6, 2020 ballot, and approved with 62% of the vote. It passed in four counties, Clark, Douglas, Storey and Washoe, as well as Carson City.
Political affiliationVoted forVoted againstAbsent
Democratic Party––
Republican Party
Total22
Total

Political affiliationVoted forVoted againstAbsent
Democratic Party–
Republican Party–
Total 20
Total

The constitutional amendment went into force on November 24, 2020, making Nevada the first U.S. state to explicitly affirm the right to marry regardless of gender in its state constitution. Section 21 of Article 1 of the Nevada Constitution now reads: