STATUS: Broad domestic partnership, anti-marriage constitutional amendment

WHAT'S HAPPENING: On May 23, 2013, the Nevada Assembly voted in favor of a legislative measure that begins the multi-year process of repealing Nevada's anti-marriage constitutional amendment and replacing it with the freedom to marry. The vote came after a victory in the Nevada Senate on April 22. 

The resolution will now need to be approved again during the next legislative session, in 2015, and if it is successful then, the measure will be placed before Nevada voters in November 2016.  

TAKE ACTION: State advocacy groups are working toward fairness for all of Nevada's families by overturning a constitutional amendment that prohibits the freedom to marry for same-sex couples in the state.

HISTORY: In 2002, anti-gay forces in Nevada pushed through Question 2, a constitutional amendment that excludes same-sex couples from marriage. 

On May 26, 2009, Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons vetoed a domestic partnership bill that had been previously approved by the state House and Senate. On May 31, however, a two-thirds majority of Nevada legislators voted to overrule the Governor's veto, creating broad domestic partnerships, which provide many - but not all - of the protections and responsibilities that the freedom to marry affords.

POLLING DATA: A February 2013 poll from the Retail Association of Nevada found that 54 percent of people in Nevada support removing the so-called Protection of Marriage provision from the Nevada Constitution, which prohibits marriages between same-sex couples in the state. Just 43 percent of those surveyed oppose removing the provision.  

GROUPS ACTIVELY WORKING ON MARRIAGE:

• The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada brings together diverse organizations to make transformational change in Nevada.
• ACLU of Nevada works to protect the rights and liberties of all Nevadans through lobbying, litigation and education.
• The Stonewall Democatic Club of Southern Nevada is the largest LGBTQ Democratic political organization in southern Nevada.
• Freedom to Marry is the campaign to win marriage for same-sex couples nationwide. 
• Human Rights Campaign is the United States' largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality. 

NUMBER OF SAME-SEX COUPLES: According to The Williams Institute's analysis of the 2010 U.S. Census, 7,140 same-sex couples are living in Nevada, representing 7.1 same-sex couples per 1,000 households.