Gay marriage ban passes in NC

[Bilge_Rat]

Originally Posted by August

But that's the whole point of Civil Unions. You wouldn't get any more or less rights or benefits by getting married as opposed to obtaining a civil union, you're just calling something different a different name. That is all.

I understand the point, a legal union having all the rights and obligations of a traditional marriage, but with a different name. I personally always thought that would be a good compromise, but for that to be a viable alternative, there would have to be movement very soon. Politically, it may already be too late for that. If Gays are obliged to fight all the way to the Supreme Court to have their rights recognized, they will accept nothing less than full equality.

In Canada, our former liberal government had legalised same- sex marriage after losing a series of court cases, all using the same reasoning as the U.S. cases I mentioned previously. When the Conservatives came in, they toyed with the idea of creating a separate " civil union", but finally gave up since it did not make sense to get into a major political fight over a name.