# What happens when two people join in a civil union? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 9, 2013, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-two-people-join-in-a-civil-union/655230 "2013-04-09T15:08:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2013, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-two-people-join-in-a-civil-union/655230/21 "2013-04-14T00:19:41Z")
Are civil unions between convicted felons illegal? ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2013, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-two-people-join-in-a-civil-union/655230/22 "2013-04-14T05:49:16Z")
Here in California, you fill out a form, have it notarized and mail it to the Secretary of State office. A few weeks later they mail you back a certificate. ---
**Author:** ![ctnguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2013, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-two-people-join-in-a-civil-union/655230/23 "2013-04-14T21:40:02Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Are civil unions between convicted felons illegal? Why would they be? Or do you mean if they’re still in prison? In that case it would presumably be down to prison policy. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-two-people-join-in-a-civil-union/655230/24 "2013-04-15T05:55:11Z")
Partial answer to the OP: in Canada, of the three provinces which have civil unions (Quebec, Nova Scotia and Manitoba), Quebec does a require a ceremony. I understand it’s conducted by the same officials who do civil marriages. I don’t know how it works in Manitoba and Nova Scotia. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-two-people-join-in-a-civil-union/655230/25 "2013-04-15T09:34:34Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > For marriages, this varies considerably depending on the laws of the country. For instance, in Canada, a marriage ceremony is required; the licence by itself is not enough for the couple to be married. My apologies: by “ceremony” I wasn’t referring to the act during which the marriage is entered, but to all the paraphernalia people pile on top of the actual requirements. My aunt’s second wedding could have consisted of “here you have copies of the contract, please read them”… “I said read, not ‘flip around’”… “do you two agree to be married?” “yes/yes” “sign at the bottom, you get to be spouse1 and you get to be spouse2”; they added some stuff so it would feel “less like we’re signing a contract” (uh, you are) and yet it all took 10 minutes. Other people manage to make them last over almost one hour, what with poems, dedications, vows, exchanges of gifts and whatnot - none of which are required by law. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2013, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-two-people-join-in-a-civil-union/655230/26 "2013-04-16T01:28:10Z")
While legal requirements vary from place to place, the typical minimal legal requirement for celebrating an _ **opposite** _-sex marriage is an exchange of promises, or an exchange of consents, and this is done verbally, in person, and before witnesses, rather than in writing. (The spouses will often sign a register after the ceremony, but this is to comply with a registration requirement. They are not married because they have signed the register; rather, they have signed the register because they are required to, having just married.) This, of course, reflects the broadly Christian heritage which underlies the civil law of marriage in most Western countries. In that tradition, it is the mutual exchange of promises which constitutes a marriage, and the civil law has mostly taken this on board. I don’t know where Nava’s aunt celebrated her second wedding, but if it was an opposite-sex wedding I’ll give nine-to-four on that the moment when she and her spouse were married was not the moment when they signed the bits of paper, but the moment just before it when they both answered “yes” to the question “do you agree to be married?” When it comes to same-sex marriage/civil unions/civil partnerships, this can go one of two ways. If what you have is, legally, a marriage in the fullest sense, except that the spouses happen to have identical rather than complementary chromosomes, then you will have a marriage ceremony which, conceptually and in detail, is all but indistinguishable from a civil wedding for an opposite-sex couple. In which case it’s likely that the exchange of promises/consents is the irreducible core of the ceremony, and any subsquent document-signing is likely to represent compliance with a registration requirement. But if what you have is a civil union/civil partnership, so called because it’s definitely _not_ a marriage, no sir, because two men/two women can’t get married because that wouldn’t be anything remotely like an actual marriage, so this is something quite, quite different, then there is no reason why the mechanism for forming a civil union should look anything like an opposite-sex marriage ceremony, and quite often it doesn’t. The irreducible minimum that you have to go through to constitute a civil partnership may well be a registration process, and it may well be something that you can do over a counter, or even through the post, without any need for any ceremony of any kind. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-two-people-join-in-a-civil-union/655230.md?page=1)