Forming More Perfect Unions

During the Prop. 8 debate last year, the position of Barack Obama and Carrie Prejean (the former still in his job) was that gay and lesbian couples could enjoy equivalent legal and financial benefits by entering into civil unions. The idea was that the debate was just over the definition of the word marriage. Equivocal though I was about Prop. 8, I felt the civil union argument was a dodge, since studies showed that unions didn't provide couples anywhere near the same protections and benefits. A New York Times article today makes this abundantly clear.