A civil union, also referred to as a civil partnership, is a legally recognized form of partnership similar to marriage. Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in many developed countries in order to provide same-sex couples rights, benefits, and responsibilities similar (in some countries, identical) to opposite-sex civil marriage. In some jurisdictions, such as Brazil, New Zealand, Uruguay, France and the U.S. states of Hawaii and Illinois, civil unions are also open to opposite-sex couples.

Many countries with civil unions recognize foreign unions if those are essentially equivalent to their own; for example, the United Kingdom lists equivalent unions in Civil Partnership Act Schedule 20.

Supporters of civil unions contend that civil unions grant same-sex couples equal rights to married couples. Some commentators, such as Ian Ayres, are critical of civil unions because they say they represent a separate status unequal to marriage. According to an American history scholar Nancy Cott "there really is no comparison, because there is nothing that is like marriage except marriage." Others, such as Robert Knight, are critical because they say civil unions endow the same rights and privileges of heterosexual marriages — alleging that they allow same-sex marriage by using a different name.

John Corvino (born 1969) is an American author, lecturer, and professor of philosophy at Wayne State University.

Corvino attended St. John's University in New York City, graduating with a bachelor of arts degree in 1990. He earned his PhD in philosophy at University of Texas at Austin in 1998.

Dr. Corvino is an associate professor in the Department of Philosophy at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He began teaching there in 1998 and received tenure in 2007. His focii are ethics, applied ethics, and early modern philosophy. Other areas of philosophy which he has concentrated are the philosophy of religion, social philosophy, and political philosophy. His dissertation involved David Hume, and Corvino has taught classes focusing on Hume as well as British empiricism.

He has written and lectured extensively on gay rights. He has also written on business ethics.

Corvino has contributed to many academic journals and periodicals, including Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, Southwest Philosophy Review, Business Ethics Quarterly, Philosophical Quarterly, and Ethics. He is a columnist for Between the Lines and the online Independent Gay Forum.

Carlos Ricardo Bruce Montes de Oca (born 24 February 1957 in Lima) is a Peruvian politician.

Bruce graduated from the Economic Faculty of the University of Lima. From 1998 to 2000, he was the president of the Peruvian Exporters' association ADEX.

In early 2000 he joined the party We Are Peru of Lima's charismatic mayor Alberto Andrade, which he left later in the same year. In 2001 he became the campaign manager for Possible Peru (PP) of successful presidential candidate Alejandro Toledo in Lima. In President Toledo's administration, Bruce held different important posts: Presidency minister from mid-2001 to mid-2002 and Minister of Housing, Construction and Sanitation from July 2002 through October 2005. From 2002 to 2005 he was a General secretary of PP party. He was the candidate to Second Vice-President on the party's ticket in the 2006 national election, but the candidacy was withdrawn following disputes between presidential candidate Rafael Belaúnde Aubry and the party's core.

Since September 2005 he has been a member of the party's national political commission. In 2006 Bruce was elected to the Congress representing Lima for the 2006-2011 term. 2010/11 he managed the campaign of Toledo for a second presidential term, endorsed by Possible Peru Alliance with himself being Toledo's running mate as candidate for First vice president. Toledo's presidential bid was unsuccessful, but Carlos Bruce was re-elected Congressman for another 5-year term. On July 29, 2011, he was accused for a dishonor for his political party and has been suspended^{[citation needed]} being independent in congress. Now Possible Peru has decreased from 21 to 20 members of the political party in congress.

The Rev Elder Jean White (died 8 November 2010) was the founding pastor within the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) in London.

She received her training as a State Registered Nurse at the London Teaching Hospital, Whitechapel, London. Later she received training as a Midwife in Bristol and at the Elsie Ingles School of Midwifery in Edinburgh, Scotland and undertook a course in Tropical Diseases at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Liverpool. In 1963-64, White studied at the International Bible Training Institute in Burgess Hill, Sussex, and in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1964 she went as a medical missionary to Macao. She served as a missionary in Asia from 1964-70. Three of those years were spent under “compound arrest” in the “no-man’s area”, between Macao and the mainland of China, during the Red Guard uprising.

As founding pastor of the MCC, White served on the denomination's Board of Elders and served the original Metropolitan Community Church of London for many years. She worked as director of World Church Extension of the denomination. She was pastor of MCC, South London, at the time of her death on 8 November 2010, aged 69, following a battle with pancreatic cancer. She is survived by her long-time partner, Mary Smail, an accomplished church musician and MCC lay leader.

Rahm Israel Emanuel (pronounced /ˈrɑːm/; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician and the 55th and current Mayor of Chicago. He was formerly White House Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama. He served as senior advisor to President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1998 and as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Illinois's 5th congressional district, from 2003 until his resignation in 2009 to take his position in the Obama Administration.

Emanuel was chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the 2006 mid-term elections and remained a top strategist for House Democrats during the 2008 cycle. After Democrats regained control of the House in 2006, Emanuel was elected chairman of the Democratic Caucus. This made him the fourth-ranking House Democrat, behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn.

Two days after Obama's election victory, Emanuel was announced as Obama's designee for White House Chief of Staff. He resigned from the House on January 2, 2009, and began his duties as Chief of Staff on January 20, 2009, the day of Obama's inauguration.