Second-Class Marriage? Civil Union in New Zealand

Abstract

Since April 2005, both same-sex and oppositesex couples have been permitted to enter into civil unions in New Zealand, yet legal marriage is still reserved for heterosexuals. This paper explores the social differences between the two types of ‘marriage’ by drawing on official statistics and qualitative interviews with celebrants and long-term cohabitants who have legalized their unions or plan to do so in the near future. Using an interpretive framework, both sets of interviews revealed that civil unions are more likely than marriages to involve high levels of tension and conflict. Although opposite sex civil unions are rare, couples seem to use them to publicly oppose marriage. For same-sex civil unions, conflict is more related to negative perceptions about same-sex relationships, fears that the civil union would become a fractious second ‘coming out’, and debates within the gay/lesbian communities about the wisdom of two categories of ‘marriage’. Despite legal change in New Zealand, this study suggests that the civil union option is still perceived by many as a second-class marriage.