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MATTHEWS: The last re-election was close.
DEAN: It was. It was a little-actually it wasn’t that close. It was a third party person in there. So, I still won by the same margin in 1998, but since it was a third party, I barely got 50 percent.
MATTHEWS: So they got to know you really well, and they squeaked...
DEAN: I signed a really controversial bill, and then I squeaked in the last time.
MATTHEWS: What was that call
DEAN: It’s called the civil union’s bill. And it’s a bill that allows gay couples to have the same rights as everybody else.

SNIP

DEAN: The bill actually says marriage is between a man and a woman, but-or and same-sex couples may enter into a civil union and, therefore, have all the same legal rights as people who are married, including hospitalization, insurance rights, inheritance rights. There is no inequality of rights in the state of Vermont. We chose not to do gay marriage because there were many people who felt that marriage was a religious institution, and churches ought to be able to make their own decisions about who gets married and who doesn’t. But we felt it was really important to do equal rights under the law for every single American, and Vermont is the only state in the country where everybody has the same rights as everyone else.
MATTHEWS: For all practical purposes, whether it’s Vermont or New Mexico, is there any difference between civil union and civil marriage?
For practical reasons.
DEAN: Well, in terms of legal rights, no, there is not.
MATTHEWS: So why are we quibbling over a name?
Because marriage is very important to a lot of people who are pretty religious.

MATTHEWS: For all practical purposes, whether it’s Vermont or New Mexico, is there any difference between civil union and civil marriage? For practical reasons.
DEAN: Well, in terms of legal rights, no, there is not.
MATTHEWS: So why are we quibbling over a name?

Thanks for posting this. I have been wondering the same thing for a while now. Many people say they support civil (homosexual) unions, but not gay marriage. Huh????

Like Matthews says, "Why are we quibbling over a name?"