Same-sex marriage in Nevada

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.

[1] 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.

[1] "Caught by surprise and unprepared", LGBT activists were severely underfunded compared to their opponents, who ran media campaigns and raised billboards.

[3] Efforts to recognize same-sex unions as reciprocal beneficiary relationships, similar to Hawaii's, were heavily opposed by the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage, and a bill to this effect was defeated in 2001.

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,[a] 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 (Partnering), inheritance, jobs, justice and the redress of wrongs, education, and spiritual sustenance.

"[4][5] A domestic partnership bill successfully passed the Nevada Legislature in 2009, granting same-sex couples various state-level rights, benefits and obligations relating to inheritance, hospital visitation, insurance, property, and adoption.

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.

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.

[16][17] On February 21, 2017, a bill to make the marriage statute gender-neutral was introduced to the Nevada Assembly by Representative Ellen Spiegel of Henderson.

"[2][3] 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.

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.

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."

[36] 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".

Theo Small and Antioco Carillo were the first couple to be issued a license in Las Vegas shortly after 5 p.m. on October 9, followed a few minutes later by State Senator Kelvin Atkinson and his partner Sherwood Howard.

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.

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.

The Nevada Supreme Court decided that a Vermont civil union could be recognized for these purposes solely if the couple had registered it as a domestic partnership, which LaFrance and Cline did not do.

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.

"[55] While there are no records of same-sex marriages as understood from a Western perspective being performed in Native American cultures, there is evidence for identities and behaviours that may be placed on the LGBT spectrum.

Many of these cultures recognized two-spirit individuals who were born male but wore women's clothing and performed everyday household work and artistic handiwork which were regarded as belonging to the feminine sphere.