“… One of several terms for a civil status similar to marriage, typically created for the purposes of allowing homosexual couples access to the benefits enjoyed by married heterosexuals…”
“… It can also be used by couples of differing sexes who do not prefer to enter into the legal institution of marriage but who would rather be in a union more similar to a common-law marriage.”
The above was taken directly from www.wikipedia.com, the most popular dictionary and encyclopedia on the internet.
Basically, a civil union is a public declaration of love between two people who do not wish to legalize their marriage or for some reason-like homosexual couples- can not under the law.A civil union does not mean the a homosexual couple can enjoy the benefits of a married couple, like spousal insurance or health care, despite what the definition above states. There are only three states at the time of this writing which recognize married gay couples- Hawaii, New Jersey, and Maine. These states do not require a civil union; legal marriage certificates may be filed.
A civil union is also done by people of alternative faiths-Wicca’s often have civil ceremonies, or hand fasts, to publicly celebrate the joining of their families and their love. In fact, most tribes and people in other countries consider themselves married legally with what would be considered a civil ceremony in the United States. They do not have marriage certificates, their vows are recorded in the family’s book of life and that’s that. They do not have to pay any fees for their wedding, and are considered just as married as anyone else by the people of that faith.
The trouble with civil unions is that they downplay the traditional importance of the pact made by two people to live together as husband and wife forever. If your marriage wasn’t legal, the attitude of “well, if it doesn’t work out, we can break up” lends itself to any easy out. In a day and age where “Till death do us part” is more likely to be “until we have our first big problem,” marriage by law is a promise to stay together through everything, good and bad. Christian faiths teach that if you only have a civil union, then you are simply living together. A true marriage is one with a minister, before God and your friends, and involves the marriage certificate, the blood tests, and everything else that goes along with a legal marriage.
You will need the certificate to change your name, accept your spouse’s health benefits, and even be able to talk about bills over the phone with the creditor! Nothing’s worse than being on the phone with the cable company, discussing your service when they ask you if you are the name on the account. Unless you can prove you’re the spouse, your honey will have to call back and fix the problem themselves.
If you want to spend the rest of your lives together, do it the right way, get married.