Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in the U.S. state of Nebraska may face some legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Nebraska, and same-sex marriage has been recognized since June 2015 as a result of Obergefell v. Hodges. The state prohibits discrimination on account of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment and housing following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County and a subsequent decision of the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission. In addition, the state's largest city, Omaha, has enacted protections in public accommodations.
In 2018, Megan Hunt became the first openly LGBT person elected to the Nebraska Legislature. 2019 polling from the Public Religion Research Institute showed that 73% of Nebraska residents supported anti-discrimination legislation protecting LGBT people.
Legality of same-sex sexual activity
Prior to European settlement of Nebraska, there were no known social or legal punishments for engaging in homosexual activity. Among several Native American tribes, customs of "two-spirit" individuals existed, where male-bodied or female-bodied people would dress, act and live as the opposite gender, as well as perform tasks associated with the opposite gender. Such individuals are known as mix'uga in the Omaha-Ponca language, spoken by the Ponca and Omaha peoples. The Native Americans did not share the typical Western views of gender and sexuality.
In 1858, a few years after the creation of the Nebraska Territory, a prohibition on sodomy ("crime against nature"), whether heterosexual or homosexual, was passed into law. Punishment varied between one year to life imprisonment. In the 1910 case of Kinnan v. State, the Nebraska Supreme Court unanimously ruled that fellatio (oral sex) was not a violation of the sodomy statute. In response, the Nebraska Legislature revised certain parts of the law in 1913, outlawing fellatio and reducing the maximum penalty for sodomy to 20 years in jail.
In 1929, Nebraska amended its sterilization law to make it applicable to state inmates who were "feeble-minded, insane, habitual criminals, moral degenerates or sexual perverts". This law was upheld by the state Supreme Court in In Re Clayton in 1931. By 1934, 276 people had been sterilized. The law was repealed in 1969, having almost only being used on the "insane or mentally retarded".
All sodomy laws were repealed at the state level when a revised criminal code was enacted in June 1977, effective on July 1, 1978. The unicameral Nebraska Legislature accomplished the repeal by overriding the veto of the original legislation by Governor J. James Exon by the minimum margin, 32 to 15. No other state repealed its sodomy criminalization statute by such a veto override.
The extent to which the state's anti-sodomy statute was enforced is unclear; Nebraska has no published sodomy cases during the 1950s or 1960s. Like many other states, Nebraska enacted a "psychopathic offender" law in the years after World War II. The Nebraska Bar Association objected when that law was revised to cover a first offense. A study showed that 7% of commitments under the law were for consenting adult gay men.
Recognition of same-sex relationships
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage has been legal in the state of Nebraska since June 26, 2015, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that the denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples is unconstitutional. That same day, Attorney General Doug Peterson said in a statement that "Recognizing the rule of law, the State of Nebraska will comply with the ruling of the United States Supreme Court in Obergefell. Nebraska officials will not enforce any Nebraska laws that are contrary to the United States Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell."
History
Nebraska is one of a handful of states to have banned same-sex marriage in its state Constitution but not in the form of a legislative statute. Voters adopted, by a 70% to 30% margin, a constitutional amendment in November 2000 that defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Following the initiative, Nebraska extended hospital visitation rights to same-sex couples through a designated visitor statute.