Change to gender-neutral titles sparks fierce debate in Nevada Legislature
CARSON CITY — A fierce debate over gender politics played out in the Nevada Legislature Wednesday night when lawmakers moved a bill to codify gender neutral titles in one chamber.
Legislators in the Assembly and the state Senate passed Assembly Bill 588 in party-line votes on Monday and Wednesday, respectively, favoring Democrats. The bill revises several statutes to remove the terms “assemblyman” and “assemblywoman,” swapping it in favor of “assemblymember.”
The bill follows a political debate over gender that has been present throughout the session. When the 120-day legislative session began in February, Assembly leaders adopted a new legislative rule incorporating gender-neutral titles.
Assemblymember Jill Dickman, R-Sparks, rebelled against the changes at the time by covering “member” on her office’s name plate with “woman” written on pink tape.
“I feel like it should be our choice,” Dickman said in a Thursday interview.
In a late-night Senate floor session on Wednesday, Sen. Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, said he viewed the change as “retrograde.” He said his wife — Assemblymember Alexis Hansen, R-Sparks — was proud to call herself “assemblywoman.” He viewed the change as part of a larger push for transgender rights and poked fun at the alternative definitions of “member.”
“I’m sort of amazed that here we are, the first female-majority Legislature, and some of the first things that the female-majority Legislature is doing is eliminating everything about females and women,” he said.
Democrats disagreed.
Sen. Melanie Scheible, D-Las Vegas, said the proposed change is about inclusivity in government.
“I think the reason that a female-majority Legislature is making this change is we recognize what it’s like to be locked out of the halls of power, and we don’t want to do that,” she said. “We don’t want to sow division and create artificial differences between our position and the positions of our colleagues.”
AB 588 still needs to be signed by the governor. The Legislature adjourns on Monday.
Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.
