An observation

[brooksmoses]

In a civilization with same-sex legal marriages, when a man refers to his "husband" and someone says, "he's not your 'husband', he's your 'partner'", it's clear that it's the second person who is being an antisocial ass, even if one might not like to admit it.

In a civilization with same-sex legal civil unions, when a man refers to his "husband" and someone says, "he's not your 'husband', he's your 'partner'", the argument that the first person is being pushy for insisting on "husband" is going to have a lot more popular traction.

This is one reason of many that they are not alike.

Comments

[zeborah]

In New Zealand law, it is illegal to say that someone who is married is not. (I'm guessing this was put in place to prevent bigamy and due to the social stigma against children born out of wedlock; but in any case it's law.)

There is no such provision with regards to civil unions.