Civil partnerships are not equal to marriage. There are dozens of federal and state benefits that Married couples receive that Civil partners don't even get an option for.

In the united states anyway, DOMA rules. As long as DOMA rules, civil partnerships can never be equal, let alone "enough" for such couples. So the only other option has been to change marriage to spread towards these couples as well, which has also met heavy resistance. If DOMA never passed or was never a problem in the first place, this debate would not even exist.

My opinion is that religious institutions should have never been made legal in America. A marriage is between male and wife. But why do they get extra rights for doing something as trivial as living together? Does the chance of creating a child and living as roommates really give them that much of an edge over gay couples to make gay couples second class citizens to straight married couples? Do I need to ask so many questions? The answer to all of these are no. XD