Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed the civil union law in Hawaii in February
The new year begins with two new states offering civil unions.
On Jan. 1, Hawaii and Delaware join the growing number of states offering some form of relationship recognition for same-sex couples.
Currently, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Washington, D.C. have marriage equality.
New Jersey, Illinois and Rhode Island offer civil unions that are equal to marriage by law but have been fraught with complaints about unequal treatment.
California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Washington state and Wisconsin have a variety of domestic partnership laws that offer some recognition and benefits.
New York, Illinois and Rhode Island were 2011 additions.
The Republican-controlled legislature in New Hampshire has a pending bill to repeal marriage equality in that state, but the governor has promised to veto it, if passed.
The new year also brings a new law in California that recognizes LGBT contributions along with those of other groups in the state’s education curriculum.
And although Prop. 8 stopped same-sex marriage in the state, California will begin granting divorces to couples who were married in the state but cannot divorce elsewhere.
Are civil unions a new product of the seperate but equal concept popular throughout world history and popular most recently in legal discrimination of black U.S. citizens?
Citizen: That’s the way residents of one state see it. Rhode Island passed civil unions in 2011. Because marriage is available in all surrounding states, only 14 couples, at last report, have taken “advantage” of these second-class relationships. More than 600 couples have married elsewhere. In its first six months, the law has lost the state $8 million that has gone to its neighbors.