Editing Civil union (section)

====Vermont====
{{Main|Same-sex marriage in Vermont}}
The civil unions law<ref name=vtculaw>{{cite web|url=http://www.sec.state.vt.us/otherprg/civilunions/civilunionlaw.html|title=Professional Regulation - Home - Vermont Secretary of State|access-date=2006-12-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923144929/http://www.sec.state.vt.us/otherprg/civilunions/civilunionlaw.html|archive-date=2009-09-23|url-status=dead}}</ref> that was passed in the [[Vermont General Assembly]] in 2000 was a response to the [[Vermont Supreme Court]] ruling in ''[[Baker v. Vermont]]'', requiring that the state grant same-sex couples the same rights and privileges accorded to married couples under the law.

A Vermont civil union is nearly identical to a legal marriage, as far as the rights and responsibilities for which state law, not federal law, is responsible are concerned.<ref name=vtculaw /> It grants partners [[next-of-kin]] rights and other protections that heterosexual married couples also receive.  However, despite the [[Full Faith and Credit clause|"full faith and credit" clause]] of the [[United States Constitution]], civil unions are generally not recognized outside Vermont in the absence of specific legislation.  Opponents of the law have supported the [[Defense of Marriage Act]] and the proposed [[Federal Marriage Amendment]] in order to prevent obligatory recognition of same-sex couples in other jurisdictions.  This means that many of the advantages of marriage, which fall in the federal jurisdiction (over 1,100 federal laws, such as joint federal income tax returns, visas and work permits for the foreign partner of a U.S. citizen, etc.), are not extended to the partners of a Vermont civil union.

Regarding voluntary recognition of the civil union in other jurisdictions, [[New York City]]'s Domestic Partnership Law, passed in 2002, recognizes civil unions formalized in other jurisdictions. [[Germany]]'s international civil law (EGBGB) also accords to Vermont civil unions the same benefits and responsibilities that apply in Vermont, as long as they do not exceed the standard accorded by German law to a German civil union. The law was replaced by the same-sex marriage law on September 1, 2009.