You can check the "married" box

by: Rosi Efthim

Tue Mar 09, 2010 at 12:37:42 PM EST

Civil unions were confusing, complicated and somehow not the same. Take filling out forms, which this 2006 Think Equal took on:

The Census forms - they hit the mail next week - don't recognize civil unions as such. Instead the documents offer a choice between 2 boxes: "husband" or "wife", or "unmarried partners". Your call. That new policy took effect in 2009 when the Commerce Department released a legal opinion that argued the federal government could tabulate and release same-sex marriage data under the Defense of Marriage Act. Ironic that something decent could emerge because of DOMA, eh?

In the 2000 count, officials re-coded same-sex husband or wife answers to "unmarried partners," since no state in the country recognized same-sex marriage at the time. Now, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and those hell-raisers in cow country Iowa allow gays to legally married. And Washington, D.C. where the first gay couple ties the knot today.

Dennis makes the case why same-sex couples should check the "married" box. And here's to a day when we get rid of the "other" box once and for all.