Can’t gay and lesbian couples get the same protections without marriage? Why aren’t civil unions enough?

Some people want to say to lesbian and gay families, “We’ll give you the protections of marriage, but let’s call it something else.” The problem is, if you call it something else, it is something else.  

Civil unions are not equal because of the special status that marriage holds in our society.  Marriage confers a dignity and respect to a couple that a civil union does not.  As the Connecticut Supreme Court said in its recent decision, “…the institution of marriage carries with it a status and significance that the newly created classification of civil unions does not embody…” (Decision of CT Supreme Court in Kerrigan).  The states that have experimented with civil unions or other forms of domestic partnership have had to go back to the drawing board again:  as in California, Connecticut, and now Vermont and New Hampshire.