SILVER STATE EQUALITY STATE LEGISLATIVE SCORECARD
We championed bills this session focused on protections for transgender incarcerated persons, non-discrimination relative to insurance coverage for gender-affirming care, marriage certificate name changes, and a genderaffirming care shield law.
We can’t thank you enough for your support of our priority bills during Nevada’s 82nd legislative session. Many of you testified in support of our bills, participated in our Equality Lobby Day, wrote letters to legislators and sent messages to the Governor’s office urging him to sign bills. Ultimately, five of six of our priority bills were passed and signed into law.
With a new Republican Governor at the helm, we weren’t quite sure what to expect once our bills crossed his desk for his signature. Therefore, we entered the legislative session with tempered expectations, muted hopes, and a determination to not recoil under uncertainty. The horrible anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric mostly directed at transgender and non-binary people heard throughout our nation was some of the worst in recent memory leading up to the legislative session. Despite this, we resolved to press forward and not be timid under the circumstances.
We championed bills this session focused on protections for transgender incarcerated persons, non-discrimination relative to insurance coverage for gender-affirming care, marriage certificate name changes, and a gender-affirming care shield law. Other bills focused on HIV prevention and allowing adolescents to access preventative sexual health care without parental consent, working to tackle the high rates of HIV and STI diagnoses for young people in Nevada. Yet another bill was an omnibus HIV practice and access modernization bill that continued our work on decriminalizing HIV that was successfully passed during the previous legislative session. This new bill also included provisions to make it easier for patients to access HIV preventative services and care.
We also supported select LGBTQ+ inclusive bills brought forth by legislators and partner organizations related to hate crimes and gun ownership, as well as LGBTQ+ humility training for certain medical facilities.
While we are very pleased with the fact that the majority of our bills were passed and signed into law, we recognize the work is never done. We will continue to monitor the implementation of these bills and identify our next steps as we press forward to ensure full lived equality for all LGBTQ+ Nevadans. At Silver State Equality, we are proud to call Nevada home. It is, after all, one of the best places in the U.S. for LGBTQ+ people to live.
Until the work is done.
Sincerely,
André Wade State Director Silver State Equality
In the scorecard that follows, the analysis of votes is based primarily on the final floor votes cast on the indicated measures. “Yes” votes on scored legislation are represented by “+,” and “no” votes are represented by “-.” Legislators who abstained but had an excused absence were marked with an “E.” Those who abstained from a vote, were marked with an “A.” Lastly, an author of a sponsored bill was marked with a “*”.
The overall score reflects Nevada legislators’ votes on Silver State Equality’s six priority bills. Bills marked with ‘**’ were not included in the overall score as the bills were important to Silver State Equality, but not part of the list of priority bills during the session.
