by Lynette Alice

Created on: April 29, 2009

In the seemingly never ending discussion of gay marriage the argument is often made that civil unions are enough for gays and they should be happy with that. The proponents of this philosophy often argue that civil unions are just as good as marriage, in fact they often say they are the same exact thing aside from the semantics. Some of those people know better, some do not. The fact is that a civil union is not at all equal to gay marriage, and while more differences can be pointed out between the two than can be pointed out without causing extreme boredom or brain lock, there are 25 differences which are significant enough to merit at least a quick mention. Have no fear, not all require a full explanation.

The best way to present this is point by point so there is no confusion. These are all elements present in a legally conducted and recognized heterosexual marriage which are not present in a civil union offered to homosexual couples. After this sampling which is a drop in the bucket of the total number of differences, you will see why civil unions are not equal or even "just as good."

1. Joint parental custody of children. In the world today it is no secret that gay couples have children and will continue to do so. The difference is that in the case of a divorce, only one parent has legal rights to the child which obviously means that without an amicable solution, a child and parent could be denied access to one another depending on the feelings of the parent that holds legal custody.

2. Joint adoption. In the case of a gay couple adopting, a couple may not adopt, however one half may. This is where point one becomes tricky as in most cases each parent has been present in the child's life from the beginning.

3. Status as next of kin for hospital visits and medical decisions is not automatically assumed. While steps can be taken in advance to petition and file for those rights, it is an unnecessary hurdle they should not need to deal with. Some states will recognize this right, but 43 do not.

4. Civil unions offer no right of the surviving partner to assume the responsibility/right to dispose of the deceased partners remains. Again this can be set in motion prior to death by going through the legal channels of the court system, but in far too many cases these provisions have been challenged and won by a biological member of the deceased persons family and easily won. In some cases it has been so ridiculous that relatives that kicked their gay child out of their

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