This was already in place with civil unions. There are also living wills, wills, power of attorney. All of these are different ways to obtain the same rights and privileges of a married couple. In some areas of the country, Civil Unions were not obtainable within the area, but the legality of a Civil Union that was legally obtained was recognized. The simplest and least difficult solution was to federally mandate that Civil Unions were recognized universally. This would have precluded the acrimonious debate and nullified it. There would have been an extremely small minority that would have bothered to defend Civil Unions.