News

Nevada’s domestic partnership law takes effect

by Michael K. Lavers

National News Editor

Thursday October 1, 2009

After months of preparation, Nevada's domestic partnership law has taken effect.

The state Secretary of State's office has said nearly 700 couples pre-registered their partnerships over the month-long pre-registration period that ended on Sept. 24. The Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas said in an e-mail to its members it expects more couples will file their forms today.

"For GLBT couples, this opportunity represents the equalizing effect that state recognition offers for our relationships," the Center said. "We now enjoy many of the same rights and responsibilities in Nevada that opposite-sex couples enjoy when they choose to marry and share their lives together."

"For GLBT couples, this opportunity represents the equalizing effect that state recognition offers for our relationships."

Openly gay state Sen. David Parks [D-Las Vegas] sponsored the legislation, which is modeled after the California domestic partnership law that took effect in 2005. It affords unmarried couples property and contractual rights, inheritance, health care and other rights and responsibilities heterosexuals receive through marriage.

Governor Jim Gibbons' vetoed the bill, but Carson City lawmakers later overrode it.

Nevada is the 17th state to extend some form of legal recognition to gay and lesbian partners.

Based in Washington, D.C., Michael K. Lavers has appeared in the New York Times, BBC, WNYC, Huffington Post, Village Voice, Advocate and other mainstream and LGBT media outlets. He is an unapologetic political junkie who thoroughly enjoys living inside the Beltway.