Gay rights bill dies

Kris Hill

Tuesday, April 17, 2001 | 11:39 a.m.

A bill that would have extended some marriage rights to unmarried couples died with little fanfare Monday night in the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

Assembly Bill 496 was one of a handful of bills that the committee did not vote on before adjourning shortly after 10 p.m. Monday.

The bill, sponsored by Assemblyman David Parks, who is gay, was opposed overwhelmingly by the Mormon Church and members of the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage, which supported last fall's initiative to ban gay marriage. The initiative was approved by 70 percent of the voters.

It is another round lost in the battle for gay rights in Nevada, a battle that opponents have won by generating votes and visible support.

"We're disappointed," said Paul Brown, the Southern Nevada director of Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada and a proponent of the bill. But, he added, "We'll keep fighting. We won't go away."

More than 300 people showed up at a hearing last week to oppose the bill, which would have allowed couples to enter into a "reciprocal beneficiary" relationship. A number of rights related to health care, wills, inheritance and funeral arrangements would have been extended to unmarried couples.

Committee Vice Chairman Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas, said some common ground was found on one aspect of the bill: hospital visitation rights.

He said last week he thought that if the bill didn't make it out of committee, the hospital visitation rights portion could be tacked onto another health-care bill that had already been passed on to the Assembly.