Via Nevada Progressive comes the news that Nevada began issuing domestic partnership certificates today. It became law only after overriding the veto of Governor Jim Gibbons (R):
History and Herstory are being made today in Nevada. Finally, FINALLY, LGBT families won't be at so much of a disadvantage any longer. The state moves just a little closer toward full equality.The post linked to an article in today's Las Vegas Sun about the law's impact on real people:
They’ve been together for more than nine years. Most of their time revolves around the kids: dropping off, picking up, going to games and recitals, meeting with teachers, reminding about chores and nursing colds. In the evenings, their family has dinner together and yet they still find time for just the two of them, to laugh and tease and flirt and say, “I love you.”Both Governor Gibbons and Nevada's GOP Senator, John Ensign, are opponents of LGBT equality. Both of them have been involved in highly publicized and notorious affairs. They're not exactly paragons of virtue.
And today, Carline Banegas and Jodie Dearborn will be one of nearly 700 couples receiving Nevada’s first domestic partnership certificates.
In the eyes of the law, their family will be almost normal.
This is progress in a southwestern state and keeps us moving in the right direction. But, as the Sun article notes:
Nevada’s domestic partnership law is an almost-but-not-quite kind of equality for gays and lesbians. It confers most legal benefits of marriage but not all.But not all. Yet.
