The Nevada legislature overrode the governor's veto last Sunday and signed into law domestic partnership rights. Linda McClain notes a peculiar aspect of the bill:
Nevada’s new law is available both to same-sex
and opposite-sex couples...In this
respect, Nevada is like several European countries where registered
partnerships are available to opposite sex and same-sex couples. The
Act does not include findings about why Nevada made this striking
choice. Like others, I have argued that creating a new civil status
alternative to civil marriage might provide a good option for
heterosexual couples who resist marriage either because of its
historical association with sex inequality or its religious
connotations. Will any opposite-sex couples in Nevada choose this new
status? Will critics charge that the Act weakens marriage precisely
because it provides this alternative?
It almost certainly does weaken marriage; and it is not the exact equivalent of civil marriage either. It was precisely to avoid this predicament that many of us proposed simple marriage rights back in the 1980s.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2009/06/nevada-vs-marriage/200930/
