Although there is no nationally
standardized law for a civil union, since the exact implications and level of
benefits of civil union laws differ from country to country and from state to
state, in the broadest sense, civil unions are terms used to legally recognize
a joining of two people that bears very similar qualities to marriage, but very
simply, is not actually called a
marriage.
There are several government-sanctioned
relationships, in fact, which are much, or exactly, the same as civil unions.
These include, but are not limited to, civil partnerships, registered
partnerships, domestic partnerships, reciprocal beneficiary relationships,
adult interdependent partnerships, civil solidarity pacts, and so on. So what
is it, exactly, that separates a civil union from these other counterparts? In
the simplest sense, it’s all the in the name.
In many cases, one state’s civil
union law may be exactly the same as another state’s domestic partnership law.
It’s merely a matter of how each individual jurisdiction chooses to word this
legal union. Generally, civil unions are assigned to describe a same-sex
partnership in a state recognized marriage-like union.
In certain cases, though,
civil unions can refer to a heterosexual relationship as well, such as in the
country of New Zealand. Again, although each individual state and country has
their own set of legal rights, benefits, and responsibilities which are granted
to these partnerships, civil unions typically suggest that a couple is entitled
to rights similar to those awarded to opposite-sex married couples within a
state. Often, though, these rights and benefits prove to be far less for
homosexual couples.
Currently, there are 20 countries and
nine U.S. states that grant the benefits of civil unions to homosexual
partnerships. Although many states which have passed civil union laws for
same-sex couples hold the social status of a civil union equivalent to
marriage, for the gay community, civil unions are not seen as a fair
replacement. “Marriage in the United States is a civil union; but a civil
union, as it has come to be called, is not marriage,” said one gay rights
activist and attorney “It is a….legal mechanism…[withholding]
something precious from gay people.”
Opponents of legalized gay marriage,
on the other hand, mainly religious conservatives, argue that same-sex marriage
should indeed be distinguished by a different name, like a civil union, and
that the sanctity of marriage, which states that such a union is strictly
between one man and one woman, should be upheld.
