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| Senator David Parks (D–Las Vegas), author of Nevada’s newly passed domestic partnership bill |
An Unlikely Partnership
by Hilary Brueck
The Amargosa Valley in Nevada is a rural, unincorporated community wedged north of Las Vegas and west of Death Valley. Nevada Assembly Member Ed Goedheart raises dairy cows, grows alfalfa, and manages a trucking company as well as a construction outfit there. But for 120 days last summer, Goedheart left his 9,000 cows to graze at home and headed north to Carson City, where he’s a self-described “citizen legislator” in the Nevada State Assembly.
Last summer, Goedheart was the only Republican assembly member who broke rank during the biennial session to cast the decisive vote for Nevada’s new domestic partnership law.
The Nevada legislature squeaked past the governor’s veto on the bill, with an exact two-thirds majority (required for overturning the veto) in both the senate and the assembly. Goedheart was joined in his support of the bill by four Republican colleagues in the State Senate.
“I look at this as a piece of civil rights legislation that affords equal rights to all different classes and folks,” Goedheart said. “I’ve always been an includer, not an excluder. I’m about encouraging the individual and encouraging people to live their own lives as they see fit. I believe that’s what the founding fathers of our constitution had in mind.”
The new domestic partnership law, which took effect on October 1, 2009, carries many of the same rights and obligations afforded to married couples in Nevada. However, since voters amended the Nevada state constitution in 2002 to define marriage as a bond solely between a man and a woman, the two are not completely synonymous. The perks? Partners can adopt children together and join individual finances more easily.
“We are thrilled that this fixes that hole in the wall and makes sure kids have protection [for] both of their loving parents,” said Lee Rowland, northern coordinator for the ACLU of Nevada.
Senator David Parks (D–Las Vegas) was the unwaveringly resolute author of the bill. “It’s been a long time [coming],” he said. He authored a similar bill in 2001, but it never got past its first committee hearing. He continued to follow the evolution of same-sex marriage bills in neighboring California over the past decade, hoping for another chance at a bill in his state. Parks, who is also Nevada’s only publicly elected openly gay official, termed the summer’s victory “gigantic.”
But the new law is not without shortcomings: Unlike marriages, domestic partnerships from other states are not recognized in Nevada, so couples relocating to the state must re-register. Employers are also not required to extend their health care plans to employees’ domestic partners (unlike state-recognized spouses). With an ever-tighter state budget and a teetering national economy, many politicians refused to support any bill with a fiscal burden like health care coverage attached.
Despite its drawbacks, supporters of the partnership law hope it will be part of a “sea change” in LGBT-rights legislation in Nevada. “It was a huge step forward for civil rights for Nevadans and hopefully, folks all over the country,” Rowland said. Just two weeks after the law took effect, well over 1,000 couples had already forked over the $50 fee to register their domestic partnerships with the state.
Another development in the 2009 legislative session provided a more elementary form of civil rights to Nevadans: the state now prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in places where the general public is invited (such as movie theaters, restaurants, and casinos).
The new, seemingly rudimentary statute, also authored by Parks, may come as a surprise from a state that purports to welcome all tourists with open arms in freewheeling Las Vegas.
Before the statute, Rowland said, you could “be thrown out of the casino if you kiss your loved one and you’re of the same sex, if you are acting a little too effeminate, or you have your arm around your partner.”
This summer’s work was monumental for Parks, but the senator has a long history of promoting civil rights and responsibility in Nevada. From anti-bullying legislation in the schools to nondiscrimination in the workplace, he’s been a leading voice of civil liberties in Nevada’s legislature for over 13 years. Some of his next projects include revising Nevada’s outdated hate crimes statute and working toward eliminating transgender discrimination.
While Assembly Member Goedheart would be the first to admit he might not agree with Senator Parks’s views on things like taxation, government reforms, or even the second amendment, civil rights is one area where the two legislators from opposite sides of the aisle see eye to eye.
“Sometimes they [Republicans] have got on this kick about telling other people how to live their lives,” Goedheart said.“We, as human beings, are so incredibly diverse that it’s impossible for one of us to really be able to walk in another person’s shoes. I think that we, as individuals, should be encouraging other individuals to become involved in committed, caring relationships and realizing those relationships don’t just come in one size.”
