A new Nevada law will make it easier for nongestational LGBTQ parents to confirm their legal parentage via adoption, without burdensome and unnecessary requirements. Nevada becomes the 11th state to enact such legislation, less than two weeks after Vermont became the 10th.
Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo (R) signed confirmatory adoptions into law on June 3, as part of a larger bill to update to the state’s adoption statutes (AB227). Confirmatory adoptions are used when someone is already a legal parent of a child but wants to confirm the parent-child relationship via an adoption decree. This is particularly important for nongestational parents in LGBTQ couples.
Here’s why: For different-sex couples, all states presume any children born during a marriage to be children of both spouses. This presumption should extend to same-sex couples after the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Obergefell and Pavan, but some state trial courts have challenged that. Furthermore, not all states have clear laws detailing the paths to parentage for couples using assisted reproduction. And for unmarried parents, while some states will recognize nongestational parents as legal parents if they consent to their partner’s assisted reproduction and/or “hold out” the child to be their own, others may not. (See “LGBTQ Paths to Parentage Security,” a guide from GLAD Law and me, for more.)
That is why, even if a nongestational parent is married to the gestational parent and on the child’s birth certificate, LGBTQ legal experts have long recommended that they take additional steps to secure their parentage, via an adoption, court order, or equivalent. (Quick reminder: A birth certificate is not a court order and doesn’t have the same legal weight.)
A standard adoption process, however, is lengthy and expensive, and involves processes like a background check and home study, which feel unnecessary and humiliating for someone adopting a child whom they had planned with a partner from the start. Nevada’s confirmatory adoption simply requires some paperwork.
Attorney Kim Surratt, who collaborated on the bill, said on her website that the confirmatory adoption provision “offers families added legal security and aligns with the realities of modern family formation.” She also noted that the updated adoption legislation as a whole “incorporates gender-neutral and inclusive language to reflect diverse family structures and the reality of today’s parenting dynamics. It is a law that serves all families, regardless of marital status, gender identity, or biological connection.”
The law goes into effect on October 1, 2025.
(Thanks to the Movement Advancement Project for tracking this type of legislation and keeping me honest about the number of states that have enacted it.)