New Jersey legislature passes "civil unions" legislation for gay couples. Governor says will sign.

A short and sweet article from the AP.

Look, is marriage better than civil unions? Yes, in my mind. Separate but equal isn't equal. And calling it a civil union rather than a marriage is demeaning, and it connotes second-class status. Having said that, this is pretty damn historic. It's also politically not unwise to make these kind of advances in bite-sized pieces that the public can digest and become accustomed to, then move on to bigger things. The alternative is to get everything you want immediately, and then suffer a massive backlash by a public that you haven't wooed - and by backlash, I mean a big fat amendment to the US Constitution.

I'm not sure I ever imagined seeing civil unions permitted anywhere in the US in my lifetime, let alone marriage. While today was a let-down in not getting marriage, for second-best it's pretty darn good.