What states offer civil unions for gay people?

inquisitive reader --

You have asked a very specific question, and I will give you a very
specific answer, along with some links to other information that may
help you understand some of the legal distinctions involved.

To answer your question, Vermont is currently the only state that
provides for "civil unions" for gay and lesbian couples.  Some other
states and municipalities have legalized "domestic partnerships,"
which is a catchall term for a relationship that is given legal status
for some purposes, but not all of the quasi-marriage rights that are
granted for a "civil union" in Vermont, some Canadian provinces and
several European countries.

There is a lot of online information on the controversial subject of
gay marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships, but the best
concise yet comprehensive discussion that I have found of the meaning
and prevalence of "civil unions" is at this link:
Fact Index: Civil Union
http://www.fact-index.com/c/ci/civil_union.html

That site also provided very useful links to information on other
related subjects, such as "domestic partnerships" and the individual
laws of very countries.

The Fact-Index site linked above appears to be up-to-date, but various
recent online references to "civil unions" confirm that Vermont
remains the only state to give legal status to such relationships. 
For example:

"Despite that acceptance, the Green Mountain State remains alone. Four
years after the law's passage, and even as Massachusetts legislators
eyed a similar civil union law, Vermont remains the only state to
offer homosexual couples a legal partnership with all the state
benefits that come with marriage."
PBS: News Hour: Gay Marriage (April 30, 2004)
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/gay_marriage/vermont.html


Many other such references can be found in the results of the
following Google search:

vermont "only state" "civil unions"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22only+vermont+OR+state%22+%22civil+unions%22+2004


Additional Information:

Here is a link to a site devoted entirely to civil unions and its
related legal concepts:
Gay-Civil-Unions.com
http://www.gay-civil-unions.com/HTML/Contents.htm


Search Strategy:

I used a variety of Google searches to find the information and to
establish that it was accurate and up to date, such as:

states "civil unions"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=states+%22civil+unions%22&btnG=Search

"civil unions"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=%22+civil+unions%22&btnG=Search

"recognize OR recognizes "civil unions"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=+%22recognizes+OR+recognize+civil+unions%22


I am confident that this is the information you are seeking and I was
happy to be able to provide it to you promptly.  If anything is
unclear, please for clarification before rating this answer.

markj-ga

Thanks - I'll follow up with the links you provided.