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Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo speaks during his first State of the State Address on the floor of the Nevada Legislature, Monday, Jan. 23.
Friday, June 2, 2023 | 2 a.m.
CARSON CITY — A bill compelling corrections officials in Nevada to establish standards for caring for transgender inmates was signed into law by Gov. Joe Lombardo, marking a key win for advocates at a time when conservative lawmakers across the country seek to restrict trans rights.
The legislation, Senate Bill 153, was signed late Wednesday by Lombardo, a first-term Republican, after clearing the Assembly along a party-line 28-14 vote last week. Among other things, the bill makes the director of the Nevada Department of Corrections responsible for adopting standards within each facility under DOC for the supervision, security, housing, medical and mental health of any offender who is trans, gender nonconforming, nonbinary or intersex.
Another provision of the bill establishes training in cultural competency for interacting with trans, gender nonconforming, nonbinary and intersex inmates. Further, the regulations prescribed by the department must:
— Apply the “generally accepted standards of care and best practices” for the supervision, custody and well-being of the inmate.
— Use “respectful language and currently accepted terminology” that protects the rights of the trans inmate.
— Prohibits the discrimination of offenders who are trans, nonconforming, nonbinary or intersex.
“The purpose of doing this is to ensure that when trans people are incarcerated, that they are safe, that they are housed appropriately and they have proper commissary and medical care just like any other person incarcerated in the Department of Corrections,” state Sen. Melanie Scheible, D-Las Vegas, the bill’s primary sponsor, told the Sun in April. “When we first developed our prison system, there was not a lot of trans people in the United States or the world. And now that we are learning more and learning better how our society is, it’s time that our laws reflect that.”
The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment. But the signing, however, marks Lombardo’s second break with mainstream GOP policymakers in recent days.
On Tuesday, Lombardo signed SB131, which shields in-state abortion providers and out-of-state women seeking the procedure from legal action where abortions have been restricted or banned. The law codifies an executive order issued last June by then-Gov. Steve Sisolak shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to overturn its 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, which was interpreted as a constitutional right to abortion.
Lombardo, who was endorsed by anti-abortion groups like National Right to Life Campaign, said previously he would sign a “clean” version of the bill after switching his stance on the campaign trail. The signing of that bill made him just the third GOP governor to sign into law abortion protections.
Nellis drag show shut down after uproar
A drag show scheduled for Thursday at Nellis Air Force Base was abruptly canceled after outcry from public officials about using the base as the venue for the event.
In a statement, U.S. Department of Defense deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told the New York Times that “drag events” were not a “suitable use” of the agency’s resources.
“As Secretary (Lloyd) Austin has said, the DOD will not host drag events at U.S. military installations or facilities,” Signh said. “Hosting these types of events in federally funded facilities is not a suitable use of DOD resources.”
A spokesperson for the base, located about 10 miles northeast of Las Vegas, declined to comment.
The base began holding the annual drag race in 2021 to celebrate the start of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, which runs throughout June.
Another pair of vetoes
Lombardo quietly vetoed a pair of bills Wednesday, one of which would have governed masterplan communities to develop heat mitigation plans, and another proposing changes to how vacant county commission seats would be filled.
If passed, SB20 would have allowed a board of county commissioners to submit to the governor a list of two persons to fill the vacant seat who are a member of the same political party. Existing law allows the open seat to be filled by the governor’s appointment, though the appointee must be a member of the same party as the previous officeholder.
Another bill, SB169, sought to require master plan communities in Clark and Washoe counties to develop a heat mitigation plan, to develop strategies like public cooling spaces, public drinking water, certain shaded areas over paved surfaces and so-called urban tree canopies.
Voter ID law dead
While Lombardo’s office has maintained the need to advance elements of his legislative agenda in order to avoid a veto of the state’s budget, the governor appears to be willing to concede on a bill that would have required a voter to show a form of photo identification in order to cast a ballot for an election.
Shortly after the governor signed the state’s $12 billion public K-12 budget, Chief of Staff Ben Keickhefer emphasized that other legislative priorities — such as expanding Nevada’s school-choice programs — will need to be met in order for other parts of the budget to be signed into law. But Keickhefer also noted that SB405 simply doesn’t have the appetite of the Democrat-controlled legislature.
“While we would love to see it, that might be one that has to go directly to the voters,” Kieckhefer said.
A poll of 800 registered voters released in February by OH Predictive Insights and The Nevada Independent showed 74% support requiring voters to show ID when trying to cast a ballot — compared to just 8% who opposed and 18% who were either unsure or neither supported nor opposed the measure.
