Marriage and civil unions are two different forms of legal status given to two individuals who are in a committed life partnership with one another. Marriage confers a unique legal status with a host of protections, responsibilities, and rights that are different from the protections, responsibilities, and rights afforded to people in civil unions. Civil unions were created as a way to legally recognize commitments between same-sex couples, but do [Page 1037]not offer all of the same rights as a marriage. Until recently, marriage was a legal status provided only to opposite sex couples. Until June 2015 (when the Supreme Court of the United States made same-sex unions legal in all 50 states), practitioners engaging in marriage, couples, and family counseling may have provided services ...