Updated February 20, 2008
Civil unions create “second-class status” and are not equal to marriage a study out of New Jersey says. A commission was established to study civil unions and it has concluded that even though the intention of civil unions is to give gay and lesbian couples the same rights of marriage, in fact they do not.
The biggest area of inequality was in regards to employment benefits for spouses. Many employers refused to offer same-sex couples the same health insurance benefits as married couples.
Massachusetts is the only state in the United States to allow gay marriage and a study there found that gay couples did not have the same kinds of problems with employers and health insurance.
The New Jersey commission found that people in civil unions were not treated the same way as married couples by government agencies, employers and others. One of the big issues is that people do not understand what civil unions are and how they differ from marriage.
(source Associated Press)
