51.   Q. How do you balance your opposition to civil unions with how you relate to gay Catholics?

52.   Riordan is unabashed in saying that he favors abortion rights, providing social services to illegal immigrants and permitting civil unions for gays.

53.   Reich said he could avoid the same problems by sticking to a clear, if ambitious, goal rather than seeking a compromise like civil unions.

54.   Republican Mitt Romney opposes civil unions, but supports domestic partnership laws that would give gay couples access to health benefits and survivorship rights.

55.   Seemingly, everyone who values social responsibility would encourage what a civil union represents.

56.   Second to huge, urban California is small, rural Vermont, which pioneered civil unions for gay couples last year.

57.   Seemingly everyone who values social responsibility would encourage what a civil union represents.

58.   Some newspaper editorials have pointed out that the signs imply that the political process that led to the civil unions law was illegitimate.

59.   Struggles for health insurance coverage and survival benefits have underscored the inequity of the ban on gay marriage, and sparked a national movement for civil unions.

60.   The civil union will unfold the next day, a semi-formal affair in a garden at the Pitcher Inn in Warren, with a minister presenting the vows.