Americans across the country have had their eyes on Nevada for days while the state has continued to tally votes in the 2020 presidential election.
About 75% of votes have been counted in the state so far, with 62% of those votes in favor of a reversal on 18-year-old verbiage that excludes same-sex marriages.
Question 2 on Nevada ballots introduced the Marriage Regardless of Gender Amendment to the state’s constitution. The amendment proposed recognizing marriage “as between couples regardless of gender.”
A 2002 voter referendum changed the Nevada Constitution to specify marriage as between “a male and female person.” A domestic partnership law was passed by the state legislature in 2009, and same-sex marriage became legal in the state in 2014 after a high-profile U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals order.
The new constitutional amendment is a formality that sets the decision in stone in the state’s most important legal document.
“The people said this, not judges or lawmakers," Equality Nevada President Chris Davin told NBC News. "This was direct democracy. It’s how everything should be.”
“Our state is very proactive on policies that protect the LGBTQ community, and it was important to continue that effort,” former state Assemblyman Nelson Araujo told NBC News.
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