February 25, 2021

Via Email: [email protected] Assembly Committee on Judiciary Legislative Building 401 S. Carson Street Carson City, NV 89701-4747

RE: Letter in Support of Assembly Bill 115

Dear Chair Yeager, Vice Chair Nguyen and Members of the Committee:

My name is André Wade and I am State Director for Silver State Equality, a Nevada-based statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization. We bring the voices of LGBTQ+ people and allies to institutions of power in Nevada and across the United States, striving to create a world that is healthy, just and fully equal for all LGBTQ+ people. I am submitting this letter in support of Assembly Bill 115. The purpose of this legislation is to allow more than two adults to be formally and legally recognized as parents of children by way of adoption.

Parenting looks different for every family. There are single parent households, two-parent households, households with stepparents, and there are situations where children have more than two parents who are actively engaged in parenting duties. This often happens when a step-parent desires to legally take on the responsibility of caring for a child in addition to the natural/birth parents. Yet another example may include two women in a same-gender marriage who form a family with the help of a male friend who is not only willing to help the women conceive a child, but who also wants to fully parent the child with the couple by sharing in the equal duties and responsibilities of caring for and raising the child. In these situations, families should be afforded certain legal rights and options to provide stability, protect their families, and ensure their family relationships are recognized by law through adoption.

According to a brief released in February 2021 by the United States Census Bureau, the American Community Survey determined that Nevada is one of 11 states, plus the District of Columbia, with a higher percentage than the national percentage in 20191 of same-sex couple

1 US Census Bureau American Community Survey Briefs: Same-Sex Couple Households: 2019, Walker, L and Taylor, D, available at https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2021/acs/acsbr-005.pdf, February 2021. households. Although Census data does not capture households where multi-parent situations occur and because only relationship to the householder was collected, we do know that same sex couples are more likely than their opposite couple cohorts to form families through adoption.

Moreover, a significant number of states are recognizing that children have more than two parents. A number of these families moving to Nevada may involve children who have more than two parents and are in need of legal protections to ensure their safety and wellbeing.

AB 115 will help create uniform and consistent parenting laws throughout the state, decrease situations where only a select number of judges allow multi-parent adoptions, and decrease situations where only parents with financial means can access the right judge to form their modern family under the law. Also, the law can prevent situations where a child is separated from one of their parents due to a lack of clarity and protections in the law, thereby resulting in a traumatic situation for the child.

To support multi-parent adoptions, Assembly bill 115 proports to, in part:

• Allow only for cooperating families to petition the court to seek an adoption that results in more than two parents; • Spread out responsibility amongst parents who are all consenting to share in the duties of raising the child; and • Allow second parent adoptions for both married and unmarried parents. Second parent adoption allows a second parent to be recognized without terminating the existing parent’s rights.

Of note, there are a few things, in part, the bill does not do:

• The bill does not affect child support guidelines that took effect as of February 2, 2020; • The bill does not change who has a claim to parentage under Nevada law. It allows for courts to grant adoptions that result in a child having more than two parents. • The bill does not change who has claim to parentage under Nevada law. It allows for courts to grant adoptions that result in a child having more than two parents.

With these provisions in place, we know that the best interest of children being cared for by more than two parents will continue to be at the center of how modern families are formed by way of adoption.

Silver State Equality asks for your support of Assembly Bill 115 to ensure equality for all families. Thank you for allowing me to provide this testimony.

André C. Wade, State Director

Silver State Equality

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