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StumbleForum gives couples glimpse into domestic partnership law
Secretary of State hosts forum before legislation takes effect Oct. 1
Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Sun
Partners Monica McCurtain and Melanie Combee listen to attorney Ishi Kunin speak about Nevada’s domestic partnership law Monday during a town hall meeting at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center in Las Vegas.
Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009 | 1:25 a.m.
Sun Archives
- 78 couples pre-file for domestic partnership rights (8-24-2009)
- State to begin taking domestic partners forms Monday (8-18-2009)
- Domestic partners must wait for coverage (7-10-2009)
- Board extends coverage to domestic partners of state employees (6-20-2009)
- Power, luck, finesse bring gay rights win (6-5-2009)
- With veto override, domestic partners bill becomes law (5-31-2009)
- Gibbons' veto of rights for gay couples appears safe (5-28-2009)
- Search is on for votes to beat Gibbons' domestic partner veto (5-27-2009)
Carla McBee and Kally Bryan moved from California to Nevada six months ago. They’ve been together for three years, and starting Oct. 1, the state will legally recognize their relationship.
McBee said domestic partnerships are old news in California, but she’s happy Nevada took a step forward with a bill passed earlier this year recognizing such relationships.
“It says we’re equal just like anybody else,” McBee said. “We pay taxes, we’re your neighbors, and we’re the same as anybody else.”
Both attended Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller’s forum Monday evening at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada to learn about the benefits – and any potential drawbacks – of the bill. Gov. Jim Gibbons had vetoed the bill, but the Assembly on May 31 voted 28-14, the bare minimum needed to overturn the decision of the governor.
The Assembly vote followed a 14-7 vote in the Senate a day earlier and set the bill on a course to become law.
Unlike some state domestic partnership laws, Nevada’s includes both same-sex and heterosexual couples. American Civil Liberties Union representative Judy Cox said this is one of the unique aspects of the bill.
“Most states, if they even allow heterosexual couples, have an age limit like over 62, but here in Nevada it’s equal,” she said.
Miller is allowing couples to pre-file until Sept. 24 so they can receive their certificates on Oct. 1. Miller said his office has received about 350 filings.
“We’re already past Wisconsin, and we’re expecting a very high volume of filings in the first week,” Miller said. “To accommodate the high volume, we wanted to allow for a month of pre-filing so we would be able to process those registration forms.”
Couples interested in domestic partnerships are required to pay a $50 fee and fill out a registration form. The form has to be notarized and mailed to the Secretary of State’s office. To help with this process, the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada had notaries available at Monday night’s forum.
Gay and Lesbian Community Center spokesman Tod Story said he had received 27 notarized registration forms by the end of the event.
Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, sponsored the bill and is the only openly gay elected official in Nevada.
“In the very beginning there were a lot of people who told me that I probably didn’t have a great chance of getting it passed, especially given the budgetary situation this year,” Parks said at the forum. “I’m happy to see it moving forward.”
Parks said Nevada is the 17th state to recognize domestic partnerships. However, states vary on the provisions they offer, he said.
To clarify the Nevada bill’s provisions, panelists included Cox and Parks; attorneys Jim Davis and Ishi Kunin; and Terri Gurevich from Nathan Adelson Hospice.
Many couples were concerned about past debts affecting their current partners. Kunin explained that a person’s past debt is separate until the partnership is registered with the state.
“From the date of partnership backwards, it’s separate,” Kunin said. “From the date of partnership forward, it’s community or joint.”
Other topics of interest included adoption, prenuptial agreements and medical benefits. The new bill doesn’t mandate that employers give health insurance to an employee’s partner, although some companies have said they’re willing to recognize an employee’s domestic partnership.
Dawn Randall said she knows of companies that are willing to recognize domestic partnerships in California. She said she hopes Nevada businesses will take the same approach.
“We’ve been together for 10 years,” Randall said while smiling at her partner, Lily Ramirez. “That’s a lot longer than most regular married people.”
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if you are the same as everybody else, why do you need special laws ?
mikeyg -- because they are not treated the same as everybody else. Nevada's Constitution was changed to be sure they knew that. It's called equality, as in "liberty and justice for all." You should check on that inconvenient concept of liberty.
bigb -- you base your statement on what, exactly?
I wonder is this like Common Law marriage, I have a girlfreind of 3 years but not ready to get married, I wonder if this would work for me to get her on my insurance ?
Marriage should be between consenting adults. The idea that Marriage has to be between a man and a woman is a religious concept and violates the separation of church and state.
Just let these people get married. It would require a lot less bureaucracy.
It took some fair minded Republicans to override a hypocritical governor's veto to make this step a reality.
I can only write from my heart that what I know to be true. Robert and I would never have choosen our gayness. Who would choose something that until fairly recently has been so frowned upon by society as a whole?
And as the coversation about marriage equaity, civil unions and domestic partnerships goes foward, we see hearts and minds slowly changing.
Fair minded legislators, civic and corporate leaders have begun picking up the pieces of debris left behind from campaigns which have divided us...campaigns which became a cash cow for people who pandered for votes, using fear as a way to line their pockets.
Governor Gibbons is a role model for the sanctity of marriage? Senator Ensign, anybody? Richard Ziser is a moral leader? When Ziser bankrolled "question 2" by going on talk radio saying all he wanted to do was "protect marriage" he made it seem as if civil unions or domstic partnerships was a possbility. How many voters supported "question 2" thinking that all they were doing was protectiong the "traditional meaning of marriage" yet wanted to see your gay family members, neghbors and co-workers still find some measure of equality under the law? If this recent debate about Domestic Partneships in this legislative session didn't prove to you how disingenuous these people have been...nothing will.
As I have stated in previous posts, Robert and I feel strongly that our churches should be free to make their own choices about marriage. But, the courthouses should belong to ALL Americans. We were gratefully married in Canada.
I wish for every partnered couple the joy, companionship and happiness that Robert and I have found in our lives.
Stuart & Robert Wyman-Cahall
Las Vegas, NV 89142
Robert and I believe that the reason that the term "marriage" has become so important is beause alternative titles such as "civil unions" or "Domestic Partnerships" in places where they have already been tested (Vermont, New Jersey, Conecticut, etc.) simply do not do what they were intended to do. Especially where employee benefits are concered.
We're so heartened people are starting to come around. Thats a huge step towards progress. But the sad truth is, my casino employer will not recognize my "domestic parnership" just as they don't recognize my legal Canadian marriage. And I have been a 15 year employee who gives one hundred per cent at my job and have been recognized many time for my efforts.
"Marriage" comes with over 1100 rights and resposibilities, my domestic partnership, though we're glad to have it, does not even come close.
Robert and I were legally married in Canada on July 27th 2004, and, truth be told, if you and I passed each other on the street, you wouldn't even know it.
Politicians, as I've stated previously, have used good folks like Robert and myself to garner votes, leaving their own marriages in shambles. We're all human, and we all fall short in the eyes of G-d. I don't judge them, but I have expectations as an American that we should all be treated equally under the law...and you should know that when Canada passed marriage equality, they smartly used U.S. law as their guide! They cited Brown Vs. The Board of Education to highlight that "seperate but equal" is not what a real democratic society should aspire to.
We are proud that it was American law that set the standard for other countries when it comes to respecting the human rights an dignity for all
G-d's people!
Stuart & Robet Wyman-Cahall
Las Vegas, NV 89142
Children of heterosexual couples NEVER have personality disorders...all of your psychiatric patients ARE children of homosexual parents, right??
Just remember, it was heterosexual parents that made the majority of homosexual children.
kirkmarstar, maybe you need to read and learn more before you make a comment. I know heterosexual parents that raise there children and even raise there nieces and nephews together but did not turn anyone of theme either gay or lesbian, and if you think that marriage is in the eye of GOD then divorce is a sin for every marriage couple, and all gay and lesbian want is to have benefit and recognition to this society that they do love and respect each other as the marriage couple are. HURRAY for the DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP.