Reply #10: It's not the word, it is the legal rights associated with the word [View All]

Marriage is a state institution, as are civil unions. Marriage is granted reciprocity by every state, the federal government, and every other country in the world. Civil unions are granted none.

If you're married in one state, and move to another, you don't have to get remarried in order to be married in the new state for tax purposes, inheritance purposes, or any of the other hundreds of rights that come with being married. Ditto for federal and international rights. That reciprocity has been developed through years of legal struggle and hundreds of legal cases which, as a patchwork, force reciprocity even when the states do not necessarily want to grant it. Virginia v. Loving (interracial marriage) was one such case in which the interracial marriage was legal in the state which created it, but not in the home state of the couple. There have been similar states involving relationship between the husband and wife, age of the parties, common law marriages recognized in one state but not another.

Developing rights beyond the state in which the rights were created for a new institution (civil unions) which is different from the existing one would need to be developed through years of legal struggle while the individuals involved are still denied rights outside of the state which authorized the civil union. (This is a principle of legal interpretation - if two things are different, they were intended to be different for a reason and the interpretation of the laws is presumed to seek and support the differences).