Federal Benefits

• With marriage, couples have at least 1,138 federal protections and responsibilities, including the right to take off work to care for a family member, the right to collect Social Security survivor benefits -- which often are the difference between poverty and relative security at an old age -- and the right to sponsor a spouse during the immigration process. Civil unions have none of these federal protections or responsibilities. In fact, Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 to outlaw the granting of federal marriage rights and benefits to same-sex couples.
  
  

Mobility

• Marriage is recognized in every state. For example, if a couple is married in New York, federal law makes that marriage legal in California as well. However, no such rule exists for civil unions. In fact, no one knows how specific states would handle a couple's civil union granted by another state because so few states have a civil union statute. Also, marriage can be terminated in any state, not just the state that granted the marriage license. Civil unions may be ended only in the state that granted the civil union or a state that recognizes all civil unions.
  
  

Ambiguity

• One major problem with civil unions is the lack of definitive law on the subject. This leaves couples with civil unions in an ambiguous state regarding state and federal functions in regard to such things as taxation, family insurance, pensions and entitlements based on spousal income. There is similar lack of clarity for civil union couples regarding how to fill out official forms and documents, specifically how to respond when asked, "married or single?" As the law stands at the time of publication, couples with civil unions don't fall into either category, and misrepresentation on official forms can be prosecuted as a crime.
  
  

Separate Status

• In October 2008, the Connecticut Supreme Court found that the classification of marriage has a "status and significance" that civil unions do not. Additionally, the court ruled that the segregation of couples into two distinct classifications is "constitutionally impermissible." The New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission reported in December 2008 that its state's Civil Union Act, the law that recognizes civil unions for same-sex couples, "invites and encourages" unequal treatment and has had a deleterious effect on the physical and mental health of same-sex couples and their families.