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The Civil Solidarity Pact, or PACS, was first introduced in France as a way for gay couples to legalize their unions even though they were not allowed to marry. However, when the law was passed, the wording was deliberately left ambiguous as to the gender of the parties. Turns out civil unions have become more popular than getting married for young heterosexual couples, who see it as another step between living together and marriage, without the full commitment. PACS’s are easier to get out of than a standard divorce as only one party has to want to leave and neither party has a claim to the other’s property or alimony.

Rather than being the open-door to homosexual marriage, a full sixth of PACSed couples end their unions by getting married, something still not possible for gays in France.

FOR THE FULL ARTICLE, visit

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/13/AR2009021303365.html

 

I’d love to see a similar law passed across the United States, with similar ambiguous wordage. Right now, I’m stuck in that peculiar limbo that often happens to straight couples who live together but don’t want to get married. In some states, if my significant other were to be hospitalized today, technically I could be banned from visiting him just as partners in homosexual relationships have sometimes been banned from hospital bedsides. After all, we are neither married nor related. (The District has one of the most progressive domestic partnership laws, but nearby Virginia lags well behind.)

I don’t qualify for my boyfriend’s health insurance because we aren’t married. His company even has a generous clause which allows cohabitating same-sex couples to share health insurance etc., but not a cohabitating heterosexual couple. In this particular set of circumstances, I actually have less rights than a gay couple (which is saying quite a bit, really) – unless I get married. Frankly, neither one of us is ready to get married anytime soon, which means the limbo continues for now.

I can only hope that when homosexuals get either the right to be married, or at least civil-union rights, something similar will be created for heterosexual couples who aren’t ready to take the full plunge.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_union#United_States