There has been alot of talk lately about marriage, civil unions, etc and the terminology. I just want to make some comments.
First, I just want to say that the "civil union is marriage in a different name" argument rings the same as "seperate but equal" to me. When people argue that marriages are performed in a church, and a church shouldn't have to marry gay people, fine, no one will make them. Let the state recognize the marriage, AND GIVE ALL RIGHTS NORMALLY ASSOCIATED WITH MARRIAGE.
I hate this crap about civil unions. "The state can give a civil union, its the same" blah blah blah. How often do you hear people say "we went to the justice of the peace and got civilly unioned". No you hear people say "we got married". Do applications, HR forms, and tax forms say "single/married/divorced/CIVIL UNION/etc"? NO! Why? Because MARRIAGE is the term we use!
If a word had a meaning at one time (marriage happens in a church, or through a religious ceremony) and over time CHANGES in common usage, does the definition of the word change? For the average person, YES! You can see in dictionaries where it will say (archaic) or something like that. There is a reason for that.
Let the states and US recognize people who actively want to be together.