Civil unions are the same as marriage

Civil unions are the same as marriage. They provide none of the same rights.

It's not semantics, it's a practical matter of law. No law which uses the word marriage applies to civil unions.

The only one who is trying to make it "just semantics" is you, by claiming civil unions are the same. If they were declared the same, than what would it matter if you call it marriage?

So till your imaginary law is passed which explicitly says "civil union and marriage means the same thing in all laws" it simply isn't as you claim.

in civil unions but it just not be called marriage?

in civil unions but it just not be called marriage? That in no way violates any provision in the Constitution and the argument that it is inconsistent with the 14th amendment is absurd. Civil unions with all the rights of married couples is not separate but equal because marriage is traditionally delegated between a men and a woman and to argue such a point that is not even though gays have all the benefits of straights is to argue semantics. To an even farther extent when the whole debate shifts from equality to semantics it no longer becomes about equality under the law but bitterness and an attempt to conflate two very distinct institutions. End the end I would just add that evident that these two institutions are very distinct in the fact that two men or two women can't reproduce, be called husband and wife or identify any traceable record in human history where marriage has been between two people of the same sex while at the same time traditional marriage exist.

Born with it. Definitely. Sometimes you don't

Born with it. Definitely. Sometimes you don't realise it till you're older but when you do, it all kind of fits in and you think 'ah, that's what I've been feeling all my life!'. I was 13, sharing a tent with a friend and I just looked at her and found I was thinking 'God, I hope she kisses me'. Obviously I didn't kiss her, and I didn't tell her or anyone else about it for a year, but I knew then and it made the past twelve years suddenly make sense. I'd always felt different from other girls, people would laugh at me and say that I wasn't a proper girl like them, and I used to cry when I was made to wear skirts when I was little.