Anne Stanback, a gay marriage advocate, says interest in civil unions has been weak in Connecticut.
Women were fonder of weddings: they accounted for roughly two-thirds of the civil unions.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has indicated he backs the legalisation of civil unions.
It was also one the first Latin American countries to allow same-sex civil unions.
In 2007, Bergoglio publicly criticized Buenos Aires' government for allowing civil unions, Russo said.
Obama has had an evolving position on gay rights, once supporting only civil unions.
It is often said that Americans disapprove of gay marriage but support civil unions.
Lastly, they argue, a constitutional ban would stop only marriage among homosexuals, not civil unions.
Barack Obama says he supports civil unions but, as a Christian, opposes gay marriage.
Vermont legalized civil unions nine years ago in response to a ruling from its high court.
Vermont, New Hampshire, and New Jersey allow civil unions for gay and lesbian couples.
And according to local polls, civil unions strike a majority of Coloradans as an acceptable compromise.
NPR's Tovia Smith reports that civil unions are often spurned as poor substitutes for the real thing.
They can't marry or enter into civil unions, and the law cannot effectively protect them from discrimination.
Mr Obama has previously backed gay rights and civil unions but has stopped short of supporting marriage.
BBC: North Carolina approves constitutional ban on gay union
He also opposes civil unions and has said he would back a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Six months after the new law came into force in July, 1, 527 civil unions had been conducted.
French law already allows civil unions for homosexual couples, but denies them full tax and inheritance rights.
And President Obama says he supports civil unions and other benefits for same-sex couples but opposes marriage.
He says he's already got dozens of complaints that employers and insurers don't want to recognize civil unions.
Barack Obama ran for president in 2008 as a supporter of civil unions but not same-sex marriage.
"I had hesitated on gay marriage, in part, because I thought civil unions would be sufficient, " he said.
At the state level, meanwhile, the cause of both gay marriage and civil unions had a bad week.
Twenty-eight per cent support civil unions and 26% believe the right to marry should be extended to all.
They said we knew civil unions weren't marriage but we thought we would at least get some basic protections.
That's exactly why, he said, we oppose civil unions in the first place.
Lynch said last week he did not think the law is necessary because the state already recognizes civil unions.
However, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has said that civil unions would not under any circumstances be equivalent to marriage.
Lawmakers approved civil unions two years ago, though few couples have sought them.
"Civil unions were a great step, but we always knew it wasn't equal, " she said in a telephone interview.
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