Hooray for Nevada

The Nevada state legislature, perhaps taking a cue from the Vermont state legislature, has overridden Governor Jim Gibbons' veto of the recently passed domestic partners bill. Gay couples will now have legal recognition and protection in Nevada.

A few posts back, I noted that Gov. Gibbons and his mistresses were avid defenders of traditional marriage. In fact, Mr. Gibbons likes traditional marriage so much that he's had two of them--divorcing his first traditionally married wife so that he could have a traditional marriage with his second wife, whom he is now divorcing as well. I suppose that Mr. Gibbons will have a traditional third marriage fairly soon after he dumps his traditionally married second wife. Will the governor select Mrs. Gibbons Number 3 from his large assortment of former and current mistresses and paramours, or will he go traditional wife hunting somewhere else? Mr. Gibbons finds himself in the company of other loud-mouthed Republican "defenders" of traditional marriage including Rush Limbaugh (with traditionally married wife number 4), Newt Gingrich (with traditionally married wife number 3), and Bob Barr (principal author of the federal "Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 and with traditionally married wife number 3).

Now in fairness, I must concede that Bob Barr has disavowed his Republican party membership and morphed into a kind of semi-Libertarian; he has also renounced his own DOMA legislation and called for its revocation (read it here). Nonetheless, in his previous political incarnation as a Republican Mr. Barr's mouth was loudly proclaiming his fidelity to traditional marriage while the rest of him was proving that he cared not a fig about it. I suspect he would still be loudly defending DOMA had he not been voted out of office as a Georgia congressman. The point, of course, is that Mr. Barr's devotion to traditional marriage was purely rhetorical and had nothing to do with his personal life.

In any event, the victory in Nevada is tremendous news and a great step forward toward genuine equality before the law. The victories just keep rolling in!

Read about the Nevada victory here