Among other rights that civil marriage provides that civil unions don't:
--right to take leave to care for a spouse; --right to sponsor a spouse for immigration; --right to make medical decisions on behalf of your spouse; --right to SS death benefits; --right assuming your deceased spouse's pension; --right to confidential conversations (spouses don't have to
testify against each other); --and according to GAO study done in '97, over 1000 more rights that
federal law bestows on married couples.
I'm just cribbing from a list at http://www.actionwisconsin.org/civilmarriage/whymarriage.html . There's other stuff on civil marriage vs. civil unions and domestic partnerships at http://www.hrc.org, but naviagating their site is a pain.
I wasn't aware of this stuff until just recently. From where I sit, civil unions and domestic partnerships are completely inferior to civil marriage in terms of benefits offered. If your partner gets gastly ill and needs care, you aren't covered under the Family Leave Act. If you love someone and want to bring them into the country, forget about it (didn't someone post a horrific, heartbreaking story of a gay American/Palestinian couple here some time back?) Is your partner in the ICU? Hell, they probably won't even let you *IN* if the family takes a dim view of your relationship, let alone make decisions. Etc.
This one should be a no-brainer. Gay couples should have civil marriage rights.
Curtiss