Same-sex marriage in Nevada

Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in the U.S. state of Nevada since October 9, 2014, when a federal district court judge issued an injunction against Nevada's enforcement of its 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 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 adopted in 2002. The statutory and constitutional bans were repealed in 2017 and 2020, respectively.

Nevada has recognized same-sex unions since October 1, 2009, through domestic partnerships, 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 the same rights as married couples. It allows opposite-sex couples to establish domestic partnerships as well.

Legal history

Statute

Between 1975 and 2017, Nevada's marriage statute (NRS § 122.020) stated that "a male and a female person...may be joined in marriage".[1][2]

On February 21, 2017, a bill to make the marriage statute gender-neutral was introduced in the Assembly by Democratic Assemblywoman Ellen Spiegel of Henderson. The legislation passed the Assembly on April 17 in a 28–10 vote, and passed the Senate on May 17 in a 20–1 vote.[3] The bill was signed into law by Governor Brian Sandoval on May 26 and took effect on July 1, 2017.[4] Nevada statutes now read:[5]

Except as otherwise provided in subsection 2 and NRS 122.025, two persons, regardless of gender, who are at least 18 years of age, not nearer of kin than second cousins or cousins of the half blood, and not having a spouse living, may be joined in marriage. [NRS § 122.020]

Constitutional amendments

Nevada voters approved Question 2, an amendment to the Constitution of Nevada that banned same-sex marriage, by 69.6% in 2000 and 67.1% in 2002.[lower-alpha 1] Richard Ziser, a real estate investor, headed the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage, which led the successful campaign that amended Nevada's State Constitution to define marriage as a union between "one man and one woman."[6][7]

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.[8] The Senate approved such legislation on April 22 on a 12–9 vote,[9] and the Assembly passed the resolution on May 23 by a 27–14 vote.[10] It would have required approval by the next legislative session in 2015 and by voters in the 2016 election to take effect.[11] 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 (known as AJR2) was introduced to repeal the now-defunct ban on same-sex marriage in the Constitution. 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,[12][13][14] and the Assembly approved the Senate's amendment on May 2.[15] The resolution returned to the Nevada Legislature in February 2019.[16] It was approved by the Assembly on March 29, 2019 in a 38–2 vote and by the Senate on May 23 in a 19–2 vote.[17][18][19] The initiative was then placed on the November 2020 ballot for approval by voters.[20][15] As Question 2, it was approved with 62% of the vote.[21][22][23] The constitutional amendment went into force on November 24, 2020. Section 21 of Article 1 of the Nevada Constitution now reads:

1. The State of Nevada and its political subdivisions shall recognize marriages and issue marriage licenses to couples regardless of gender.
2. Religious organizations and members of the clergy have the right to refuse to solemnize a marriage, and no person has the right to make any claim against a religious organization or member of the clergy for such a refusal.
3. All legally valid marriages must be treated equally under the law.

Breakdown of voting for Question 2, 2020 by county

County	Yes (%)	Yes votes	No (%)	No votes	Formal total
Carson City	57.96%	16,691	42.04%	12,107	28,798
Churchill	44.35%	5,523	55.65%	6,929	12,452
Clark	64.75%	584,484	35.25%	318,205	902,689
Douglas	52.31%	17,051	47.69%	15,548	32,599
Elko	46.37%	9,842	53.63%	11,381	21,223
Esmeralda	33.97%	159	66.03%	309	468
Eureka	31.56%	303	68.44%	657	960
Humboldt	43.24%	3,258	56.76%	4,277	7,535
Lander	41.53%	1,111	58.47%	1,564	2,675
Lincoln	32.02%	755	67.98%	1,603	2,358
Lyon	47.26%	13,750	52.74%	15,344	29,094
Mineral	47.46%	1,056	52.54%	1,169	2,225
Nye	47.04%	11,448	52.96%	12,888	24,336
Pershing	39.58%	874	60.42%	1,334	2,208
Storey	50.45%	1,410	49.55%	1,385	2,795
Washoe	63.51%	151,545	36.49%	87,068	238,613
White Pine	42.54%	1,790	57.46%	2,418	4,208
Nevada	62.43%	821,050	37.57%	494,186	1,315,236

Federal lawsuit

On April 10, 2012, Lambda Legal filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. In the case of Sevcik v. Sandoval, it argued that "No legitimate ... interest exists to exclude same-sex couples from the historic and highly venerated institution of marriage, especially where the State already grants lesbians and gay men access to almost all substantive spousal rights and responsibilities through registered domestic partnership." The case raised equal protection claims but did not assert a fundamental right to marry.[24]

On November 29, 2012, Judge Robert C. Jones ruled against the plaintiffs, holding that "the maintenance of the traditional institution of civil marriage as between one man and one woman is a legitimate state interest".[25] The decision was appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.[26]

In February 2014, the state withdrew its brief defending Nevada's ban on same-sex marriage. Governor Brian Sandoval stated: "It has become clear that this case is no longer defensible in court".[27] On October 7, 2014, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision of the federal district court in Nevada and remanded it back to the district court, ordering it to issue an injunction to bar enforcement of Nevada's amendment banning same-sex marriage.[28][29] The court held that Nevada's ban on same-sex marriage constituted a violation of same-sex couples' Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection.[30] The court also applied heightened scrutiny in concluding that Nevada's ban constituted discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. On October 9, Judge James C. Mahan issued the injunction and same-sex couples began obtaining marriage licenses.[31]

The Nevada Supreme Court ruled unanimously in LaFrance v. Cline on December 23, 2020 that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges obliges the state to recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in other jurisdictions before 2014. Mary Elizabeth LaFrance and Gail Cline had a civil union ceremony in Vermont in 2000 and legally wed in Canada in 2003, but their marriage was not recognized in Nevada at the time. In 2014, they divorced and filed for judicial dissolution. The trial court had to decide what property and assets were part of the "community" for purposes of division of assets. District Court Judge Mathew Harter concluded that pursuant to Obergefell he should find that their "community" came into effect when the couple entered into their civil union in 2000, and divided property accordingly. LaFrance appealed, contending that their marital community, for purposes of Nevada law, did not come into effect until the Sevcik decision in 2014. The state Supreme Court decided that a Vermont civil union could be recognized for these purposes solely if the couple had registered it as a Nevada domestic partnership, which LaFrance and Cline did not do. The court concluded that their marital community was formed in 2003 in Canada. Even though it was not recognized in Nevada at the time, the court found that it must be retroactively recognized pursuant to Obergefell.[32][33][34]

Domestic partnership

Senate Bill 283, legislation creating domestic partnerships in which unmarried couples–both same-sex couples and different-sex couples–would have most of the rights of married couples was sponsored by openly gay Democratic 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.[35] It passed the Senate on April 21, 2009 on a 12–9 vote. The Nevada Assembly passed the legislation 26–14 on May 15. On May 25, Republican 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."[35]

On May 30, the Senate overrode Gibbons' veto on a 14–7 vote,[36] and the Assembly overrode the veto the next day on a 28–14 vote,[37] obtaining the two-thirds vote needed to override the veto. The law took effect on October 1, 2009.[38] It allows opposite-sex couples to establish domestic partnerships as well.[39]

The Nevada Domestic Partnership Act (DPA) provides many of the state-level rights, responsibilities, obligations, entitlements and benefits of marriage under the name "domestic partnership". They differ from marriage in failing to qualify as marriages for federal government purposes and 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.[37][40] On June 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Windsor, which challenged the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and declared Section 3 of DOMA unconstitutional, reasoning that it violated the protections of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as well as the equal protection guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment.[41] Because of that ruling, federal government benefits were extended to same-sex couples and their children in states where same-sex marriage is legal. The DPA fails to qualify domestic partnerships as marriages only for the purpose of requiring businesses and governments to provide the health benefits stated above because of that ruling.

Nevada domestic partnerships differ from marriages in that a couple forming a domestic partnership must share a common residence.[40] 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.[40][42]

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
• A surviving domestic partner may bring a wrongful death action based on the death of the other partner
• Community property, domestic violence and testimonial privileges rules apply
• Dissolution laws apply (with only a few exceptions)
• Domestic partners may 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
• 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; 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

Marriage statistics

On January 20, 2017, the Clark County Clerk's Marriage License Bureau issued its 10,000th same-sex marriage license.[43] The number of same-sex marriages performed in Clark County was 957 in 2014, followed by 4,055 in 2015, 4,778 in 2016, 4,418 in 2017, 4,269 in 2018, and 4,233 in 2019. Often referred to as the "Marriage Capital of the World", Las Vegas (and adjacent communities in Clark County) has one of the highest marriage rates in the U.S., attracting many couples from overseas and other states. In 2019, 420 same-sex spouses were from Mexico, 350 from England, 326 from China, 213 from the Philippines, 147 from Canada, 143 from Germany, 115 from France, 90 from Australia and 87 from Brazil, as well as several dozen from Israel, Spain, Cuba, Vietnam, Italy, Venezuela, Scotland, El Salvador and Thailand.[44]

Public opinion

Public opinion for same-sex marriage in Nevada

Poll source	Date(s) administered	Sample size	Margin of error	% support	% opposition	% no opinion
Public Religion Research Institute	April 5-December 23, 2017	832	?	70%	23%	7%
American Values Atlas/Public Religion Research Institute	May 18, 2016-January 10, 2017	977	?	67%	25%	8%
American Values Atlas/Public Religion Research Institute	April 29, 2015-January 7, 2016	690	?	57%	35%	8%
New York Times/CBS News/YouGov	September 20-October 1, 2014	1,502 likely voters	± 3.4%	55%	31%	13%
Moore Information	September 27–29, 2013	500 likely voters	?	57%	36%	7%
Public Opinion Strategies	2013	500 likely voters	?	54%	42%	4%
Public Policy Polling	August 23–26, 2012	831 likely voters	± 3.4%	47%	43%	11%
Public Policy Polling	July 28–31, 2011	601 Nevada voters	± 4%	45%	44%	11%

See also

• LGBT rights in Nevada
• Same-sex marriage in the United States

Notes

1. Amendments to the Constitution of Nevada must be approved twice by voters if initiated by the people, or twice by the Legislature and once by voters if initiated by the Legislature.

References

1. "NRS: CHAPTER 122 - MARRIAGE". leg.state.nv.us. 1 January 2017. Archived from the original on 28 May 2017.
2. 1975 Statutes of Nevada, Page 1817
3. Legislative history of AB229
4. "Sandoval signs bill codifying right to same-sex marriage in Nevada". NBC My News 4. 26 May 2017. Archived from the original on 28 May 2017.
5. Nevada Revised Statutes: Chapter 122 - Marriage
6. Neff, Erin (10 February 2004). "Ziser: Massachusetts shows gay marriage ban needed". Las Vegas Review - Journal. ProQuest 260172871.
7. Robertson, Tatsha; Freiss, Steve (23 November 2003). "GAY MARRIAGE DECISION SPURS ACTION ACROSS US". Boston Globe. ProQuest 404841726.
8. "Nev. senate panel amends, passes gay marriage bill". Reno Gazette-Journal. April 11, 2013.
9. Chereb, Sandra (April 22, 2013). "Gay marriage resolution advances in Nevada". Reno Gazette-Journal. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
10. "Nevada Assembly backs resolution to end ban on gay marriage". Las Vegas Sun. May 23, 2013.
11. Hagar, Ray (April 28, 2013). "Long road ahead for marriage equality in Nevada". Reno Gazette-Journal. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
12. "Nevada Assembly resolution brings gay marriage debate back". Las Vegas Review-Journal. March 11, 2017.
13. NV AJR2 | 2017 | 79th Legislature
14. "Nevada senators move gay marriage update closer to ballot". Reno Gazette Journal. May 1, 2017.
15. Legislative history of AJR2
16. "Joint Resolution is second step in effort to redefine marriage in the Nevada State Constitution". Nevada Capital News. 13 March 2019.
17. "Nevada Assembly OKs marriage equality amendment". Northern Nevada Business View. April 1, 2019.
18. Lyle, Michael. "Ballot question on state constitution's same-sex marriage ban coming in 2020". Nevada Current. Retrieved 2019-05-24.
19. "Nevada AJR2A | 2019 | 80th Legislature". LegiScan. Retrieved 2019-05-24.
20. "Same-sex marriage bill would alter Nevada Constitution language". Las Vegas Review-Journal. February 21, 2017.
21. Silver State Election Results
22. Browning, Bil (2020-11-04). "Nevada voters turn same-sex marriage ban into legal protections for gay couples". LGBTQ Nation. Retrieved 2020-11-06.
23. "Nevada Question 2, Marriage Regardless of Gender Amendment (2020)". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 2020-11-06.
24. MetroWeekly: Chris Geidner, "Lambda Legal Files Federal Lawsuit Seeking Marriage Equality in Nevada," April 10, 2012 Archived October 22, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, accessed June 4, 2012
25. Geidner, Chris (November 29, 2012). "Federal Judge Rules Nevada Can Ban Same-Sex Couples From Marriage". BuzzFeed Politics. Retrieved November 30, 2012.
26. "Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals allows Hawaii and Nevada marriage cases to be heard on a parallel track". Equality on Trial. January 7, 2013.
27. "Gay Marriage Ban Support Slips in Nevada". The Associated Press. New York Times. February 10, 2014. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
28. "Ninth Circuit Strikes Down Gay-Marriage Bans in Idaho, Nevadal". Wall Street Journal. October 7, 2014.
29. "Ninth Circuit Opinion" (PDF). October 7, 2014.
30. "Appellate Court Strikes Down Gay-Marriage Bans In Idaho, Nevada". NPR.org. October 7, 2014. Retrieved October 7, 2014.
31. "Federal judge signs injunction allowing gay marriage in Nevada". Reno Gazette-Journal. October 9, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
32. Bollinger, Alex (January 7, 2021). "Nevada retroactively recognizes same-sex marriages in lesbian divorce case". LGBTQ Nation.
33. Leonard, Arthur (January 6, 2021). "Nevada Supreme Court Retroactively Recognizes Pre-Obergefell Marriages". GayCityNews.com.
34. "Nevada Supreme Court Holds Obergefell Requires Retroactive Recognition of Out-of-State Same-Sex Marriages (but Not Civil Unions) for Community Property Purposes". Art Leonard Observations. December 31, 2020.
35. Vogel, Ed (May 25, 2009). "Gibbons vetoes domestic partner bill". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved May 23, 2013.
36. Ryan, Cy (May 30, 2009). "Senate overrides governor's veto of domestic partners bill". Las Vegas Sun. Retrieved May 23, 2013.
37. Friess, Steve (June 1, 2009). "Nevada Partnership Bill Now Law". New York Times. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
38. "Domestic partnership certificates issued in Nevada". USA Today. October 1, 2009. Retrieved May 23, 2013.
39. "Senate Bill No. 283" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-12-02.
40. "Domestic Partnerships in Nevada, April 5, 2012". LGBT Topics. ACLU of Nevada. Retrieved May 23, 2013.
41. United States v. Windsor (US 2013)
42. "Nevada Marriage Age Requirements Laws". Law.findlaw.com. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
43. 10,000th same-sex marriage license issued in Clark County
44. "Raw Data Files for Statistical Analysis 2007-2019". clarkcountynv.gov.