This particular situation brings home the issue of whether civil-unions are equivalent to same-sex marriage. The answer is clearly, they are not. Civil-unions leave too much leeway in determining the definition of spouse.

This was a problem that gay rights groups were talking about when the civil-unions option was being marketed by the government and so-called marriage defense groups started equating this option as permitting all the same benefits and responsibilities as marriage. This is a fraud. Civil-unions, while offering many of the same rights and privileges as marriage is still different. It is the old separate but equal story; there is simply no such thing. If it was considered the same, they wouldn't be calling it by a different name. Freedom to marry works very well in Canada and the other countries who have caught up with the 21st century reality of family life. Let's stop the fraud in the U.S. and finally rid ourselves of the DOMA, and finally end discrimination.

One day it will be different Zazel; I know that day is coming.