Reply #46: I concur (one exception and one addition)

[Creideiki]

The addition is that if we were somehow to end up with legal civil unions and legal marriages, it wouldn't take long before exceptions to the "everything with marriage must also have civil union" thing. We may start from an equal place under the law, but the divergence would be swift and remarkable. Then we'd be stuck in battle after battle to re-amend all the special rights for the marriages. The real only ways out are separation of civil marriage and religious marriage (unlikely) and the addition of same-sex couples to access to the marriage contract. Neither is likely, but at least it would end the divisiveness.