Gay Weddings are Good for Business

Civil Unions were approved in Delaware last week, set to go into effect January 2, 2012.

Delaware joins Illinois, New Jersey, and as of January 2, 2012, Hawaii, as the U.S. states which offer statewide civil unions for same-sex couples.

Defining a civil union, from our Gay Wedding Glossary:

A legal union of a same-sex couple, sanctioned by a civil authority. New Jersey, Illinois and Hawaii (active on January 1, 2012) are the U.S. state with civil unions. They were legal in Vermont and Connecticut at a time, before both states approved legal gay marriage.

Civil unions are not equal to marriage, though they provide some (but not all) rights of marriage. Civil unions are not sanctioned by the federal government and couples with civil unions receive no federal benefits. Many same-sex couples, while they see civil unions as progress, still "hold out" for legal marriage before planning a wedding because they don't see much meaning in a separate and unequal institution.