Nevada Domestic Partnership Bill Advances

Las Vegas Review Journal
http://www.lvrj.com/news/45210472.html

CARSON CITY -- Same- and opposite-sex couples could secure domestic partnership contracts giving them the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexual married couples under a bill that received overwhelming support Friday in the Assembly.

But the 26-14 vote for Senate Bill 283 fell two short of the 28 that will be needed in the coming weeks to override a promised veto from Gov. Jim Gibbons.

Earlier Friday, the bill's primary sponsor, Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, said he believes he now has the two votes he needs in the Senate to override Gibbons' veto. The bill passed the Senate on a 12-9 vote last month.

Based on the Assembly vote, Parks -- the only admitted homosexual member of the Legislature -- also needs a couple of more votes in the Assembly.

In a related issue Friday, the Assembly also voted 37-3 for Senate Bill 207 that would outlaw discrimination in public accommodations based on sexual orientation. The bill previously was approved 19-2 in the Senate.

Lodging, restaurant and gaming lobbyists testified for the bill during hearings.

Gibbons reiterated Friday that he will veto the domestic partnership bill once it reaches his desk.

That won't come before sometime in the next two weeks after the Senate is expected to approve Assembly-passed amendments that Parks added in an attempt to win more support.

One of those amendments specifies that companies are not required, but can voluntarily choose, to offer health care benefits to the domestic partners of their workers.

The domestic partnership bill won Assembly approval after emotional speeches by members Ellen Spiegel, D-Henderson, and Sheila Leslie, D-Reno.

Spiegel said the bill isn't just for gay couples. It also would allow heterosexual couples to become domestic partners.

She mentioned she secured a domestic partnership when she lived in Santa Monica, Calif., so she could move into an apartment with her boyfriend rather than pay inflated rent in the apartment where she was living. A few months later, they married.

Earlier in her life, Spiegel said she lived with a man who suddenly died at age 40. Since the home was in his name, police told her she had to leave quickly after he died. She had no legal right to anything.

In her "gayborhood," Leslie said there are many nice, committed gay couples, including one that includes the father of her child. They should have the same right as married couples, she said.

Leslie said she sees the bill "in the great tradition of Nevada libertarianism. I think our state motto should be 'Live and Let Live.' In Nevada, government should not intrude in our lives."

But Assemblyman Ty Cobb, R-Reno, said gay couples can secure inheritance, hospital visitation, end-of-life decision and other rights through private contracts.

He said he opposes the bill because it goes against the intentions of Nevada voters who passed the Protection of Marriage constitutional amendment in 2002. That amendment specifies a marriage can be only between a man and a woman.

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